The first edition of the
Vallejo Daily Independent was published on Jan. 6, 1872. It was founded by T.L. Thompson and J.F. Linthicum. Linthicum sold the paper three years later to A.B. Gibson and George Roe, who then changed the name to the
Solano Daily Times on Sept. 23, 1875. The paper later became the
Vallejo Times. In 1916, Luther E. Gibson bought a small commercial printing plant in
Santa Cruz and brought on high school student Kenneth F. Knight as his apprentice. A year later Gibson enlisted to in the U.S. military to serve during
World War I. Knight finished school and started a monthly magazine called
Sanda, which covered the
Mare Island Naval Shipyard. He soon expanded it to a weekly newspaper called
The Mare Island Employee. Struggling to find a printer, he contacted Gibson who had just returned from
France and was working at the
Watsonville Register. The men formed a partnership with two others and each contributed $500 to purchase a defunct printing plant from
Antioch and restart it in Vallejo. In April 1922, the
Times merged with the
Herald.
Times publisher Robert W. Walker was the majority stock owner and Gibson was a minority owner and the paper's business manager. Five years later Gibson bought the
Vallejo Chronicle and merged it with
Vallejo News to form the
News-Chronicle, but the paper eventually ceased. Gibson served as a California state senator from 1948 to 1968 and was simply known by some as "the senator." On June 20, 1978, five unions representing 88 employees working at the
Times-Herald went on strike and picketed the office. Thirty employees from other Donrey papers were brought in to put out the
Times-Herald. Some of the striking workers established a rival paper called the
Vallejo Independent Press, or
The V.I.P. Wyman Riley served as publisher, and the paper ceased in 1984. On Jan. 13, 1999, Donrey merged 10 of its California newspapers, including the
Times-Herald, into Garden State Newspapers, which was owned by
MediaNews Group. Donrey owned a third of the joint venture while MediaNews owned the majority stake. == Miscellaneous ==