Mark Trafton

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Mark Trafton | image = Mark Trafton.jpg | state = [[Massachusetts]] | district = {{ushr|MA|11|11th}} | term_start = March 4, 1855 | term_end = March 3, 1857 | preceded = [[John Z. Goodrich]] | succeeded = [[Henry L. Dawes]] | office2 = | term2 = | preceded2 = | succeeded2 = | birth_date = {{birth date|1810|8|1}}<ref name="BET2-9-1901">{{Citation |title=Rev. Mark Trafton |page=6 |work=Boston Evening Transcript |date=March 9, 1901}}</ref> | birth_place = [[Bangor, Maine|Bangor, Massachusetts]] (now [[Maine]])<ref name="BET2-9-1901"/> | death_date = {{death date and age|1901|3|8|1810|8|1}}<ref name="NYT2-9-1901">{{Citation |title = DEATH LIST OF A DAY.; The Rev. Mark Trafton. |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 9, 1901}}</ref> | death_place = [[Somerville, Massachusetts|West Somerville, Massachusetts]]<ref name="LDS2-9-1901p3">{{Citation |title=Reverend Mark Trafton |page=3 |work=Lewiston Daily Sun |location=Lewiston, Maine |date=March 9, 1901}}</ref> | resting_place = Peabody Cemetery, [[Springfield, Massachusetts]] | spouse = Eliza Young<ref name="BET2-9-1901"/> | children = {{plainlist| * John Trafton<ref name="BET2-9-1901"/> * [[Adeline Trafton]]<ref name="BET2-9-1901"/><ref name="WhoWHoInAmp853">{{Citation |editor=John William Leonard |title=Who's Who in America, 1903-1905 |page=853 |publisher=A N Marquis |location=Chicago |year=1903}}</ref> * James Trafton<ref name="BET2-9-1901"/> }} | alma_mater = | occupation = Shoemaker<ref name="BET2-9-1901"/><ref name="PoetsofMainep143"/> | profession = [[Methodist Episcopal]] pastor | party = [[Know Nothing|American Party]] }}

'''Mark Trafton''' (August 1, 1810 – March 8, 1901) was a [[Methodist Episcopal]] minister who, as a member of the [[Know Nothing|American Party]] served one term as a [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. representative]] from [[Massachusetts]].

==Family history== Trafton's mother Margaret Dennett,<ref name="BET2-9-1901"/> was the daughter of Jacob Dennett, one of [[Bangor, Maine]]'s original settlers.<ref>James Vickery, ed., ''The Journals of John Edwards Godfrey'', ft. p. 279</ref>

== Early life == Trafton was born in [[Bangor, Maine|Bangor]] (then in Massachusetts' [[District of Maine]]) to Theodore<ref name="BET2-9-1901"/><ref name="PoetsofMainep143">{{Citation |editor=George Bancroft Griffith| title =The Poets of Maine: A Collection of Specimen Poems from over Four Hundred Verse-Makers of the Pine-Tree State: With Biographical Sketches | page = 143 | publisher = Elwell, Pickard & company| location = [[Portland, Maine]] | year = 1888}}</ref> and Margaret (Dennett) Trafton.<ref name="BET2-9-1901"/> When he was fifteen years old he was apprenticed to a Mr. Weed, a shoemaker<ref name="BET2-9-1901"/><ref name="PoetsofMainep143"/> of [[Bangor, Maine]].<ref name="PoetsofMainep143"/>

== Education == Trafton studied at Kent's Hill Seminary, and was ordained pastor of the [[Methodist Episcopal]] church in [[Westfield, Massachusetts]]. 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.<ref>See [[Adams-Pickering Block]]</ref> Trafton never lost touch with his home town of Bangor, returning to speak at its centennial celebration in 1869.<ref>''Centennial Celebration of Bangor (Me.)'' (1869), p. 90</ref>

== Family life == In 1836<ref name="BET2-9-1901"/> Trafton married Eliza Young of East [[Pittston, Maine]].<ref name="BET2-9-1901"/> The Traftons had six children including sons John and James Trafton,<ref name="BET2-9-1901"/> and daughter, writer [[Adeline Trafton]].<ref name="BET2-9-1901"/><ref name="WhoWHoInAmp853"/> Eliza Trafton died in 1882.<ref name="BET2-9-1901"/>

==Member of Congress== Trafton was elected as the candidate of the American Party (aka the [[Know-Nothing Party]]) to the [[34th United States Congress|Thirty-fourth Congress]] (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]]. According to his ''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]'' 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".<ref name="NYT2-9-1901"/> He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1856 to the [[35th United States Congress|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, Massachusetts|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 [[Somerville, Massachusetts|West Somerville, Massachusetts]], March 8, 1901. He was interred in [[Springfield Cemetery (Springfield, Massachusetts)|Peabody Cemetery]], in [[Springfield, Massachusetts|Springfield]].

==References== {{CongBio|T000351}}

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Mark Trafton}} *[http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/traeger-travia.html#684.53.28 Mark Trafton entry] at [[The Political Graveyard]] *{{find a Grave|7481751}}

{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | state=Massachusetts | district=11 | district_ord=11th | before=[[John Z. Goodrich]] | after=[[Henry L. Dawes]] | years= March 4, 1855 – March 3, 1857}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trafton, Mark}} [[Category:1810 births]] [[Category:1901 deaths]] [[Category:Politicians from Bangor, Maine]] [[Category:American Methodist clergy]] [[Category:Know-Nothing United States representatives from Massachusetts]] [[Category:Politicians from Somerville, Massachusetts]] [[Category:19th-century Methodists]] [[Category:19th-century United States representatives]] [[Category:19th-century American Christian clergy]]