[1] Upon emigrating to the United States and locating in San Francisco, California, he and James C. Flood opened the Auction Lunch Saloon on Washington Street in 1857.

[2] Accumulating considerable fortunes by 1868, they sold the Auction Lunch and opened a brokerage, where they met James G. Fair and John W. Mackay.

The four joined forces, with a combined capital of $225,000, to challenge William Chapman Ralston for control of the Hale & Norcross silver mine at Virginia City, Nevada.

It opened in October 1875 when its building at Pine and Montgomery Streets was ready; Louis McLane was its first president.

He never forgot his friends from pre-Consolidated Virginia days, but on the few occasions he appeared in society, he seemed to belong there.