Introduction

Biography

Trabert was the hus­band of Ma­ry Eli­za­beth Min­nigh.

He at­tend­ed Penn­syl­van­ia Col­lege (1864–67) and the Lu­ther­an Theo­lo­gic­al Se­mi­na­ry in Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia (1867–70).

He was re­ceived in­to the Min­is­ter­iu­m in 1883 in Red Wing, Min­ne­so­ta, and or­dained in Potts­town, Penn­syl­van­ia, in 1870.

He served as a pas­tor in east­ern Penn­syl­van­ia (1870–82), as a mis­sion­ary for the Au­gus­ta­na Church (1882–93), and es­tab­lished five Eng­lish lang­uage church­es in the Twin Ci­ties area, in­clud­ing St. John’s Lu­ther­an.

He re­turned to Penn­syl­van­ia (1896–97), then went back to Min­ne­ap­olis, where he joined the Ge­ne­ral Coun­cil’s North­west Sy­nod, and was pas­tor of the Sa­lem Eng­lish Lu­ther­an Church in Min­ne­ap­olis (1897–1920).

Though of Ger­man he­ri­tage, Tra­bert learned enough Swed­ish to trans­late at least 40 Swed­ish hymns in­to English.

He al­so served on the Exe­cu­tive Com­mit­tee of the Swed­ish Min­ne­so­ta Con­fer­ence, and on the Board of Di­rect­ors of Gus­ta­vus Adolph­us Col­lege.

Works

• The Mode of Bap­tism as Taught in God’s Word
• Genuine Vs. Spu­ri­ous Re­viv­als, 1876
• The Life of Lu­ther in Pic­ture and Verse, 1879 (trans­la­tion from the Ger­man of J. A. Darm­stedt­er)
• History of the Ge­ne­ral Coun­cil’s Mis­sion Among the Te­le­gus of In­dia, 1890
• English Lu­ther­an­ism in the North­west, 1914