Mark Trafton (August 1, 1810 – March 8, 1901) was a

Methodist Episcopal The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...

minister who, as a member of the American Party served one term as a

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

from

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

Family history

Trafton's mother Margaret Dennett, was the daughter of Jacob Dennett, one of Bangor, Maine's original settlers.

Early life

Trafton was born in Bangor (then in Massachusetts'

District of Maine The District of Maine was the governmental designation for what is now the U.S. state of Maine from October 25, 1780 to March 15, 1820, when it was admitted to the Union as the 23rd state. The district was a part of the Commonwealth of Massachu ...

) to Theodore and Margaret (Dennett) Trafton. When he was fifteen years old he was apprenticed to a Mr. Weed, a shoemaker of Bangor, Maine.

Education

Trafton studied at Kent's Hill Seminary, and was ordained pastor of the

church in

Westfield, Massachusetts Westfield is a city in Hampden County, in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts, United States. Westfield was first settled by Europeans in 1660. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population w ...

. In the early 1850s he traveled in Europe and published his letters home as ''Rambles in Europe: In a Series of Familiar Letters'' (Boston, 1852). The volume is dedicated to George W. Pickering, a cousin and prominent merchant in Bangor, Maine, who may have financed the trip. Trafton never lost touch with his home town of Bangor, returning to speak at its centennial celebration in 1869.''Centennial Celebration of Bangor (Me.)'' (1869), p. 90

Family life

In 1836 Trafton married Eliza Young of East

Pittston, Maine Pittston is a town in Kennebec County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,875 at the 2020 census. The town was named after the family of John Pitt, who were early settlers. Pittston is included in the Augusta, Maine micropolitan New En ...

. The Traftons had six children including sons John and James Trafton, and daughter, writer

Adeline Trafton Adeline Trafton Knox (abt. 1842–1920?) was an American writer and novelist, she published most of her work in the 1870s. A daughter of minister (and one-term member of U.S. Congress) Mark Trafton,

. Eliza Trafton died in 1882.

Member of Congress

Trafton was elected as the candidate of the American Party (aka the

Know-Nothing Party The Know Nothing party was a nativist political party and movement in the United States in the mid-1850s. The party was officially known as the "Native American Party" prior to 1855 and thereafter, it was simply known as the "American Party". ...

) to the

Thirty-fourth Congress The 34th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C., from March 4, 1855, ...

(March 4, 1855 – March 3, 1857). All eleven U.S. Representatives in the Massachusetts delegation were members of the American Party, including Speaker of the House

Nathaniel P. Banks Nathaniel Prentice (or Prentiss) Banks (January 30, 1816 – September 1, 1894) was an American politician from Massachusetts and a Union general during the Civil War. A millworker by background, Banks was prominent in local debating societies, ...

. According to his ''

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'' obituary, Trafton "had been an active leader in the anti-slavery reform, and while a member of Congress he secured the cordial hate of his opponents by his bold assaults upon the slave power". He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1856 to the Thirty-fifth Congress, and resumed his ministerial duties as pastor of a church in Mount Wollaston, Massachusetts.

Career as a Clergyman

Trafton served as the pastor of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church in Charlestown. Trafton served as pastor for the North Russell St. M. E. church in Boston in 1850 and 1851. The ladies of the church presented he and his wife with a red and white signature quilt upon his leaving his tenure there. The quilt now resides at the International Quilt Museum, in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Death and burial

Trafton died in

West Somerville, Massachusetts Somerville ( ) is a city located directly to the northwest of Boston, and north of Cambridge, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a total population of 81,045 people. With an area o ...

, March 8, 1901. He was interred in Peabody Cemetery, in Springfield.

References

Notes

External links

*
Mark Trafton entry
at

The Political Graveyard The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 American political figures and political families, along with other information. The name comes from the website's inclusion of burial locations o ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Trafton, Mark 1810 births 1901 deaths Politicians from Bangor, Maine American Methodist clergy Know-Nothing members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts Politicians from Somerville, Massachusetts 19th-century American politicians 19th-century Methodists 19th-century American clergy