Across The Fence: Buffalo Baron, Charles Rath

On July 30, 1902, Charles Rath, the son of Johann Christian and Philomene Bertha Rath, died at the home of his sister and brother-in-law in Los Angeles.

His headstone in the Rosedale Cemetery is simply inscribed, "Charles Rath Plainsman 1836-1902"

In 1848, when Charles was 12, the Rath family immigrated to the U.S. from Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany. Five years later, in 1853, it is said that Charles "ran away from home."

Perhaps it was the lure of the West that pulled Charles from the family's Ohio farm to William Bent's trading post on the banks of the Arkansas River. It was there that Charles...