Martin Edwin Trapp | |
---|---|
6th Governor of Oklahoma | |
In office November 19, 1923 – January 10, 1927 |
|
Lieutenant | Vacant |
Preceded by | John C. Walton |
Succeeded by | Henry S. Johnston |
3rd Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma | |
In office January 11, 1915 – November 19, 1923 |
|
Governor | John C. Walton |
Preceded by | J. J. McAlester |
Succeeded by | William J. Holloway |
Auditor of Oklahoma | |
In office 1907–1911 |
|
Preceded by | new office |
Succeeded by | Fred Parkinson |
Personal details | |
Born |
Robinson, Kansas |
April 18, 1877
Died | July 26, 1951 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma |
(aged 74)
Nationality | American |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse(s) | Lula C. Strang Trapp |
Profession | teacher, politician |
Religion | Disciples of Christ |
Martin Edwin Trapp (April 18, 1877 – July 26, 1951) was an American state auditor, governor and lieutenant governor of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Oklahoma's third lieutenant governor, he was the first to become governor not through an election but instead due to the previous governor's impeachment and removal from office.
Trapp served as the first state auditor and third lieutenant governor of Oklahoma. When Governor Jack Walton was impeached and removed from office, Trapp became the sixth governor of Oklahoma. As governor, he was responsible for the establishment of a state bureau of investigation, conservation programs, and his attempts to abolish the Ku Klux Klan. He began his political career serving as the county clerk of Logan County in Oklahoma Territory.
Trapp died in 1951 and is buried in Fairlawn Cemetery in Oklahoma City.
Martin Edwin Trapp was born in Robinson, Kansas on April 18, 1877. Martin would spend the first twelve years of his life in Kansas until 1889. Following the Land Run of 1889, Trapp’s father moved his entire family to Logan County to a claim just seven miles west of Guthrie. Trapp would not attend public school as Oklahoma Territory possessed none. Instead, he was educated almost entirely by association and study with a neighbor by the last name of McDaniel. Trapp worked at a local newspaper while gaining his education. He also worked at the age of 21 as a certified teacher and later as a traveling salesman.
Trapp began his political career in 1904 when he ran on the Democratic ticket for the Logan County county clerk, an office he would be hold from 1905 to 1907. On November 16, 1907, Oklahoma Territory officially became the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Trapp left county government behind him and would run for, and be elected, Oklahoma’s first state auditor. Trapp served under Charles N. Haskell, the first Governor of Oklahoma, from 1907 to 1911. After his term as state auditor, Trapp moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma, where he would set up a bond business.