A few years later, he moved with his young family to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he worked as a merchant and trader. He was appointed post master of a small town in what was then Mecklenburg County and is now believed to be Monroe, North Carolina by US President Andrew Jackson, which he named Jacksonville (not to be confused with Jacksonville, North Carolina). In 1827 he purchased large plots of land there and in 1830 and 1832 he was granted powers of attorney by his father-in-law Samuel Hyams to sell more land in Mecklenburg and two slaves named Sandy and Gabriel that Hyams owned. On 3 November 1829 he placed an advertisement in the "Western Carolinian" for a "House of Accommodation", believed to be same place as Labatt's Crossroads, where Union County's first court sat.