By Steve Byas

The imposition of martial law, the shutting down of a grand jury, keeping the state legislature from meeting were all justifiable reasons to impeach and remove Governor John Walton in 1923. And the Oklahoma Legislature did just that.

Following the removal of Walton, the lieutenant governor, Martin E. Trapp was elevated to the governor’s office. Although largely forgotten today, even by many active in the field of history, the state needed someone like Trapp, who served you, with dignity and competence, what would have been Walton’s term of office with dignity. Trapp was born in Kansas 1877 and his family came to Oklahoma when the land was opened for settlement in 1889, settling on a farm in Logan County. He served as county clerk in Logan County, before becoming the state’s first State Auditor in 1907. Finally, he was elected lieutenant governor in 1914, and was re-elected in 1918 and 1922. As the governor and lieutenant governor do not serve as a “team,” Trapp was left untarnished by the tumultuous reign of Walton.

He quickly fired 3,000 of Walton’s appointees and went to work expanding the state’s highway system. In this, he was strongly opposed by most of the state’s county commissioners, who enjoyed their dominance in roadbuilding, a great reelection talking point. The funding of the state highways was accomplished through gasoline taxes, an automobile license tax, and the use of some federal highway funds. Highway 77 was the first paved road in Oklahoma. Visitors to Norman driving down Porter Street can still see hints of it when they drive by Van’s Pig Stand, converted from a service station. Every county seat eventually got a paved road.

But, other than spending on roads as the automobile became increasingly common, Trapp was otherwise a relentless budget-cutter. He led the way in abolishing some state agencies and reduced state spending by a third.

In the 1920s, Oklahoma was the nation’s leading oil state, and Trapp largely left them alone. Business leaders generally supported Trapp’s laissez-faire attitude on the economy, but leaders of organized labor did not like him. He was also opposed by the Ku Klux Klan, which at one time had about 100,000 card-carrying members in the state.

There is little doubt that Trapp could have won the election in 1926, but the state Constitution did not allow governors to succeed themselves in office. A governor could serve a second term, but not consecutively. This was changed in the 1960s, and Governor Dewey F. Bartlett became the first governor who could seek a consecutive second term in 1970. However, Bartlett was narrowly defeated by David Hall, and it was not until 1982 that George P. Nigh was able to be the first governor to win a consecutive second term. Since that time, Frank Keating, Brad Henry, Mary Fallin, and Kevin Stitt have been able to win second terms.

Trapp argued that the constitutional provision of not allowing a consecutive term did not apply to him, that he was only “acting governor.” However, the state Supreme Court ruled against Trapp and he was not allowed to run again. Instead, the state turned to another Democrat, Henry S. Johnston in 1926, as the state would not elect a Republican governor until 1962.

Steve Byas is the editor of the Oklahoma Constitution and the director of the History Program at Randall University in Moore, Oklahoma.