[1] The town was located on the Double Mountain Fork Brazos River, 14 miles northwest of Hamlin in southern Stonewall County, Texas, United States.

Its original establishment was meant to capitalize on the buffalo trade, and it was Stonewall County's first settlement.

The town's namesake was Charles Rath, whose store, built in 1875, was the structure around which the village grew.

[2][3] In February 1877, after buffalo hunter Marshall Sewell was killed by Native Americans, Rath City became a rallying point for over 500 frontiersmen.

The hunters returned to Rath City, thus ending one of the last Indian campaigns on the southern plains.