On October 7, 1863, the "Democratic Press" was established in San Francisco, and by June 12, 1865, it became the "Evening Examiner", with William S. Moss as publisher and B. F. Washington as editor. For several years William S. Moss, Phil Roach and George Pen Johnston were its owners. Until it was bought by Senator Hearst in the 1880s, the paper had been a "highly chaste and non-sensation journal". After Senator Hearst's death the paper went to his son, William R. Hearst.