James Jerome Owen, a forty-niner and former Republican New York assemblyman, became the "Mercury"s publisher in the spring of 1861, later acquiring a controlling interest in the paper along with a partner, Benjamin H. Cottle. The paper published daily as the "San Jose Daily Mercury" for three months in the fall of 1861, then from August 1869 to April 1870 with the addition of J. J. Conmy as partner, and again from March 11, 1872, after the purchase of the "Daily Guide". In 1878, Owen formed the Mercury Printing and Publishing Company.