[5] Stratford was first settled around 1885, when a man named Aaron Norton bought 100 parcels of land from the Chicago, Rock Island and Gulf Railway.

His manager, Walter Colton, named it for Stratford Hall, the childhood home of Robert E. Lee, whom he admired.

[6] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.0 square miles (5.3 km2), all land.

[7] Stratford has a semiarid climate (BSk) with long, hot summers and short, cool, and somewhat snowy winters.

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 1,939 people, 702 households, and 554 families residing in the city.

Stratford is at the intersection of US Routes 54 and 287, and is the western terminus of Texas State Highway 15.