Martin Edwin Trapp (18 April 1877-26 July 1951) was the Democratic Governor of Oklahoma from 19 November 1923 to 10 January 1927, succeeding Jack C. Walton and preceding Henry S. Johnston.
Biography[]
Martin Edwin Trapp was born in Robinson, Kansas in 1877, and his family moved to Guthrie, Oklahoma in 1889. Trapp worked as a teacher and traveling salesman before becoming Logan County clerk from 1905 to 1907 and serving as state auditor from 1907 to 1911, Lieutenant Governor from 1915 to 1923, and Governor from 1923 to 1927. Trapp was a conservative Democrat, unlike his predecessor Jack C. Walton, and he trimmed the state budget to provide for a more efficient state government, oversaw conservation efforts, and established a State Bureau of Criminal Investigation in 1925 and passed an anti-mask law to reduce the Klan's power. He retired in 1927 and failed in his 1930 bid for Governor, and he died in Oklahoma City in 1951.