Swift (who traveled with him from Kentucky) in Sacramento, California that sold all types of goods for new arrivals including horses, mules, wagons, tents, and mining equipment.

[2] Sloss and McDonald, then partnered with Simon Greenwald and Lewis Gerstle, and opened a wholesale grocery firm.

[2] After the Great Flood of 1862 devastated Sacramento, Sloss and Gerstle moved to San Francisco where they worked as stockbrokers.

In the 1870s, they won a 20-year concession to harvest seals in Pribilof Islands; and expanded their retail activities to village stores in Alaska where natives could trade gold, fish, and furs for dry goods.

[2] Sloss served on the Board of Regents of the University of California and a trustee of the San Francisco Public Library.