Charles Rath
Charles Rath made his way west in 1853 and joined William Bent’s trading empire in Colorado, where he worked as an independent freighter hauling supplies and trade goods across Kansas. By an unfortunate event, Charles Rath in 1860 took over the trading post of George Peacock on Walnut Creek, near present-day Great Bend, after Peacock and Kiowa warriors led by Satank massacred five others. Rath also began to operate a sutler’s store at nearby Fort Zarah and, in November 1860, was elected constable of Peketon County (later part of Marion County.)
In 1863, he partnered with several men to build a toll bridge across Walnut Creek. At about this same time, tensions between the Indians and the white settlers mounted. However, Rath had done his best to maintain peaceful relationships with the tribes. Even with these efforts of tried peace relations, the Walnut Creek Trading Post was continually raided over time. For his safety, his Cheyenne wife convinced him to divorce her.
Rath made a return visit in 1869 to his old home in Ohio, where he met Caroline Markley, whom he married on April 26, 1870. The couple would eventually have three children. Shortly after the marriage, Rath with his new bride to Kansas. The couple lived briefly in Topeka, then at Osage City, where Rath established a mercantile business and continued his freighting.
In the early 1870s, Rath was one of the first men to take advantage of the growing buffalo hide trade, and in September 1872, he moved to Dodge City. He soon began hunting, freighting, and marketing the hides and formed the Rath Mercantile Company, whose yard was sometimes filled with as many as 80,000 hides at one time. When Ford County was officially organized in 1873, Rath became one of its first three commissioners.
No one will ever really know how many buffalo hides and robes Charles Rath had bought and Sold, besides the ones he had obtained in his hunts. His first Sales were at Leavenworth to Lobenstein, then the collected ones at Dodge City in the Charles Rath & Company hide yard, which went to Kansas City and other markets in the East as Rath found them. Hides from Fort Griffin and Rath City poured into Fort worth by train loads to be shipped eastward with Rath on hand to market them. No one could have the record of all these sales now.
In 1863, he partnered with several men to build a toll bridge across Walnut Creek. At about this same time, tensions between the Indians and the white settlers mounted. However, Rath had done his best to maintain peaceful relationships with the tribes. Even with these efforts of tried peace relations, the Walnut Creek Trading Post was continually raided over time. For his safety, his Cheyenne wife convinced him to divorce her.
Rath made a return visit in 1869 to his old home in Ohio, where he met Caroline Markley, whom he married on April 26, 1870. The couple would eventually have three children. Shortly after the marriage, Rath with his new bride to Kansas. The couple lived briefly in Topeka, then at Osage City, where Rath established a mercantile business and continued his freighting.
In the early 1870s, Rath was one of the first men to take advantage of the growing buffalo hide trade, and in September 1872, he moved to Dodge City. He soon began hunting, freighting, and marketing the hides and formed the Rath Mercantile Company, whose yard was sometimes filled with as many as 80,000 hides at one time. When Ford County was officially organized in 1873, Rath became one of its first three commissioners.
No one will ever really know how many buffalo hides and robes Charles Rath had bought and Sold, besides the ones he had obtained in his hunts. His first Sales were at Leavenworth to Lobenstein, then the collected ones at Dodge City in the Charles Rath & Company hide yard, which went to Kansas City and other markets in the East as Rath found them. Hides from Fort Griffin and Rath City poured into Fort worth by train loads to be shipped eastward with Rath on hand to market them. No one could have the record of all these sales now.
Charles Rath in Robert Wright's buffalo hide yard in 1878. Rath is seated on rick of 40,000 hides. M.W. (Doc) Anchutz (in white shirt, back left), a baler from Meade, Kansas, said, "We had as high as 70,000 to 80,000 hides at times in the yard." Prices for the hides ranged from 80 cents to $4 each (current value: $70 to $320). Most were used for industrial belts. The Rath Trail (from Dodge City to Rath City, Texas) was unique, being the only trail established for buffalo hunters.