Louis Sloss (July 13, 1823 – 1902) was an American businessman who co-founded the

Alaska Commercial Company The Alaska Commercial Company (ACC) is a company that operated retail stores in Alaska during the early period of Alaska's ownership by the United States. From 1901 to 1992, it was known as the Northern Commercial Company (NCC). In 1992, it resumed ...

Biography

Sloss was born in 1823 to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in Untereisenheim,

Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German E ...

. In 1845, he immigrated to the United States first settling in

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

and then

Nevada City, California Nevada City (originally, ''Ustumah'', a Nisenan village; later, Nevada, Deer Creek Dry Diggins, and Caldwell's Upper Store) is the county seat of Nevada County, California, United States, northeast of Sacramento, southwest of Reno and northeas ...

in 1849 during the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

. He opened a general merchandise store with partners Dr. Richard H. McDonald and C.H. Swift (who traveled with him from Kentucky) in

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

that sold all types of goods for new arrivals including horses, mules, wagons, tents, and mining equipment. Sloss and McDonald, then partnered with Simon Greenwald and Lewis Gerstle, and opened a wholesale grocery firm. After the

Great Flood of 1862 The Great Flood of 1862 was the largest flood in the recorded history of Oregon, Nevada, and California, occurring from December 1861 to January 1862. It was preceded by weeks of continuous rains and snows in the very high elevations that began in ...

devastated Sacramento, Sloss and Gerstle moved to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

where they worked as stockbrokers. In 1868, after the purchase of Alaska from Russia, Sloss and Gerstle formed the

. In the 1870s, they won a 20-year concession to harvest

seals Seals may refer to: * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to impress an emblem, used as a means of a ...

Pribilof Islands The Pribilof Islands (formerly the Northern Fur Seal Islands; ale, Amiq, russian: Острова Прибылова, Ostrova Pribylova) are a group of four volcanic islands off the coast of mainland Alaska, in the Bering Sea, about north of ...

; and expanded their retail activities to village stores in Alaska where natives could trade gold, fish, and furs for dry goods. The company eventually paid more in fees to the United States' Treasury than the United States paid to purchase Alaska. Sloss served on the Board of Regents of the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

and a trustee of the

San Francisco Public Library The San Francisco Public Library is the public library system of the city and county of San Francisco. The Main Library is located at Civic Center, at 100 Larkin Street. The library system has won several awards, such as ''Library Journals L ...

. He served as president of Congregation B'nai Israel in Sacramento.

Personal life

In 1855, he married Philadelphia-native Sarah Greenebaum. They had five children: Bella Sloss Lilienthal, Leon Sloss, Louis Sloss Jr., Joseph Sloss, and Judge Marcus C. Sloss. The

Liberty Ship Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Mass ...

, ''SS Louis Sloss'', is named after him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sloss, Louis American company founders People from Würzburg (district) 1823 births 1902 deaths Bavarian emigrants to the United States 19th-century German Jews Businesspeople from California 19th-century American businesspeople