Background
He was born on July 13, 1823 in Bavaria, Germany, of a Jewish family.
He was born on July 13, 1823 in Bavaria, Germany, of a Jewish family.
Endowed with ambition and self-reliance, he left the overcrowded community of his birth and emigrated to America in 1845. He first settled in Mackville, where he opened a country store. In 1849 he joined the gold-seekers, crossed the plains, and reached Sutter's Fort, California, on September 13.
He traded in some of the flourishing mining towns for a time, but early in the fifties moved to Sacramento and for ten years (1852 - 61) was engaged in the wholesale grocery business with Lewis Gerstle, another Bavarian emigrant, and Simon Greenewald, under the firm name of Louis Sloss & Company. The great flood of 1861 brought heavy losses and led the firm to move to San Francisco early in 1862, where they opened a stock brokerage office.
In 1866, Sloss obtained a seat on the San Francisco Stock and Exchange Board, and soon acquired a commanding position as a broker, especially in connection with the silver discoveries in Nevada. During the period of frenzied mining speculation and widespread business dishonesty and treachery in the seventies, he commanded universal public confidence.
Leaving the Stock Exchange in 1873, the firm engaged in the wool, fur, hide, and commission business. In 1869 or 1870, he went to Washington and negotiated the lease from the government of the exclusive right for twenty years, beginning May 1, 1870, to conduct seal-fishing on the Pribilof Islands. After the discovery of gold in Alaska, the company developed into a great trading enterprise.
He was also interested in fire and marine insurance and served as first president of the Anglo-Nevada Assurance Association. Directly or indirectly, he had a substantial interest in numerous mercantile enterprises, as well as extensive landholdings in Southern California.
He took especial delight in helping worthy persons to start in business and become permanently self-sustaining. The orphans and sick, the aged and feeble, also elicited his special interest and care. He was a member of the Congregation Emanu-El, twenty-eighth president of the Society of California Pioneers (1884 - 85), treasurer of the Republican state central committee, trustee of the Free Public Library, and treasurer of the University of California (1885 - 1902).
He died at his summer home in San Rafael and was buried in Home of Peace cemetery, San Mateo County.
He was a business genius of the first order.
Quotes from others about the person
According to San Francisco Chronicle, he was "the most honest man that ever handled mining shares".
The San Francisco Chronicle said of him at the time of his death, "Modesty was his cardinal virtue, and (he) knew no distinction between rich and poor, the favored and unfortunate. No man was ever more considerate of his fellow-beings. "
On July 19, 1855, in Philadelphia, he married Sarah Greenebaum, whose sister later married his partner, Gerstle. Mrs. Sloss, with five of their six children.