Trabert 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 served as 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. His works in­clude:

• 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

1. In Hope My Soul
2. O Pasch­al Feast, What Joy Is Thine