Though not founded until 1896, the
Yuma Sun can trace its history back to the
Arizona Sentinel, the first newspaper in what is now the
Yuma area.
The Arizona Sentinel On September 30, 1871, the
Arizona Free Press was first published in Arizona City by David A. Gordon. In March 1872, C. L. Minor bought the paper and renamed it to the
Arizona Sentinel. In October 1873, Judge William J. Berry purchased the paper and by then the town was named Yuma. He sold it three years later to a group of local business men. Reporter
John W. Dorrington acquired full ownership in 1881 and then worked as editor and publisher. In 1911, Dorrington sold the
Sentinel to the
Yuma Examiner and the combined paper was named the
Arizona Sentinel and Yuma Weekly Examiner. William Harold Shorey was named editor. In 1915, the paper merged with the
Yuma Southwest to become the
Arizona Sentinel Yuma Southwest. Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Bellah legally disputed ownership of the paper, which soon fell into the receivership of Mrs. Elanor McCoy. She sold it in April 1932 to Clyde E. Ely. He sold out a year later to Cliff Carter and Jack Gale. In May 1934, a fire damaged the paper's office.
The Yuma Morning Sun The
Yuma Morning Sun was first published on April 10, 1896. The
Sun was founded by
Mulford Winsor, the son of a newspaper editor. This rendition of the paper would be printed off and on for a period of nine years. In 1916, the paper was met with disaster, when a flood caused the collapse of the
Morning Sun's offices, destroying all of the files of paper for the previous 20 years. The disaster was a total loss for the paper. However, the paper received financial backing and shortly resumed publication. Three years later Worthington, who was also a part-owner of the
Beloit Daily News, suffered a severe concussion in a automobile crash, but his injuries were non-critical and he recovered.
Post-Merger In 1935, during the
Great Depression, F.F. McNaughton, of Illinois, and R.E. "Doc" Osborn of Indiana, bought the Y
uma Evening Sentinel and the
Yuma Morning Sun and merged the two under the
Sun masthead. The
Sun was owned by Worthington and the
Sentinel was owned by Gale. At that time McNaughton also owned the
Pekin Daily Times. Later Osborn's son
Jones Osborn later became editor and publisher of the
Sun. In 1953, McNaughton's son-in-law Donald N. Soldwedel joined the business. Under his leadership, the family purchased several other newspapers and launched a commercial printing operation. In 1978, a holding company called
Western News & Info was established and Soldwedel was named president. The Soldwedel family owned all the stock. In 1984,
Cox Enterprises purchased a half-interest in the
Sun from the Soldwedels. The company acquired the remaining 50% stake later that year. In 1996, Cox sold its six Arizona daily papers to
Thomson Newspapers, who in 2000 sold them to
Freedom Communications. In 2013, Freedom sold the
Yuma Sun and the
Porterville Recorder to
Rhode Island Suburban Newspapers. ==References==