The Metropolitan
At
the turn of the 20th century, a local
colored journal was being
published in Denison. Dr. D.W.
Shields, physician, was editor for
the quite popular newspaper. The Sunday
Gazetteer of 1900 labeled articles
which were reproduced from The
Metropolitan to the Gazetteer
as "gems."
About
mid-February 1900 Dr. Shields paid The Gazetteer
office a visit, which occasioned the quote
taken from The Metropolitan about
Mayor Lebrecht's re-election .
The
Metropolitan focused on local
politics. Later that same month the Gazetteer
reproduced an article that had been written
on Louis Lebrecht, praising the Mayor as one
focused
on what was right.
In
May 1900 this newspaper weighed in on the
election of School Trustees.
One such article reported negatively
on Dr. Nagle as running
for school trustee; consequently, Dr. Nagle
did not win a school
trustee position in the election but was
beaten by A.H. Terrell by a
slim margin; A.H. Terrell was well qualified
to serve and set a
historic mark in Denison's history by being
the first African-American
to run for a school trustee position.
The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday,
May 13, 1900
The Sunday
Gazetteer
Sunday,
May 13, 1900
It seemed a
consensus that political articles written in
The
Metropolitan
greatly affected the outcome of the 1900
school trustee election, both
in a positive and a negative manner.
Dr. Birch, one of the
candidates for school trustee, announced
after the election that he
believed his success in gaining a seat on
the School Board because of
an article written in The Metropolitan,
supporting him as a candidate
for trustee.
The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday,
May 13, 1900
On
another subject affecting Denison people was
an article praising Mayor
John S. Knaur for the manner in which he
handled the smallpox plague.
Mayor Knaur was in politics, a
Republican; and traditionally the
Republicans were friends of the African
American population.
The Sunday
Gazetteer
Sunday, June 3, 1900
As well as
politics and health news, The Metropolitan
also published social news of its community.
The
Sunday Gazetteer
January 28, 1900
Dr.
David
W. Shields of The Metropolitan is listed in
the 1903 Denison City
Directory. But by 1905 he had moved to
Dallas and was associated
with another local newspaper, The Dallas
Express, 1919 - 1924.
Dr. Shields died in Dallas in 1937 at
the age of 75 and is buried
in Woodland Cemetery.
 
Africian
-American
Research
Susan
Hawkins
©2025
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