George Strother Gaines (1784 - 1873)

Born 1 May 1784 in Surry County North Carolina, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 21 Jan 1873 at age 88 in State Line, Greene County, Mississippi, USA

George Gaines served for Mississippi Territory in the War of 1812
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Biography

He was the son of James Gaines and his wife, Elizabeth Strother. He was the half brother of Gen. Edmund Pendleton Gaines.

In 1804, Gaines was appointed by the federal government as assistant trader (known then as factor) with the Choctaw Trading House at St. Stephens, Mississippi Territory, in present-day Washington County, Alabama. When his new employer, Joseph Chambers, resigned as factor in 1806, Gaines replaced him and established a solid reputation with the tribes, particularly the Choctaws, as well as the settlers along the lower Tombigbee and Tensaw rivers. ^[1]He started this career in 1804 which he performed until 1819.

He married Anne Gaines, his distant cousin, in 1812.

In 1817, Gaines advised French settlers to establish a settlement, known as the Vine and Olive Colony, at the White Bluff, below the junction of the Black Warrior and Tombigbee rivers in Marengo County. ^[2]

In 1821, he owned a four room log house (two rooms up and two rooms down), which were separated by a dogtrot. The house was that portion of current building, where the front door at the port-cochere opens into what was originally the open dogtrot. This rather large log house for its day was located in Marengo County, Alabama. It later became "Gaineswood"

From 1825 to 1827, George Strother Gaines was an Indian agent on the Spanish border and was largely responsible for the success of American trade with the Spanish. He was a state senator in Alabama at the same time. While senator, Gaines developed personal and political connections that would prove important to his future as a banker, businessman, and railroad lobbyist

In October 1830, Gaines organized a Choctaw party to find suitable lands in present-day Oklahoma before returning to Demopolis in March 1831. Gaines next received an appointment in August as superintendent for the first stage of Choctaw removal. Despite suffering numerous hardships during their overland trek, the first removal parties arrived in the new homeland in early March 1832

The removal overseen by Gaines had cost the government three times the original estimate and was considered a failure by the War Department. Gaines believed the venture to have been a success because there were few deaths or other casualties among the Choctaw, and he was praised by the Mobile Commercial Register for his attention to the travelers' wellbeing.

Gaines and his family moved in October 1832 to Mobile, where he was elected president of the Mobile branch of the State Bank of Alabama.

He was honored when the city of Gainesville, Alabama was named after him. He moved to Mobile, Alabama in 1830 and was a merchant in that city until 1856, at which time he migrated to nearby State Line, Mississippi.

He developed the Peachwood Nurseries. Gaines raised and sold a wide range of plants and trees, including bedding plants, flowering shrubs, fruit trees (especially apple and peach trees), and grapes. - See more at: http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1476#sthash.1WCVhlLQ.dpuf

Additional Resources:

Leftwich, George J. "Colonel George Strother Gaines and Other Pioneers in Mississippi Territory." Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society 1 (1904): pages 442-56.

Pate, James P., ed. The Reminiscences of George Strother Gaines: Pioneer and Statesman of Early Alabama and Mississippi, 1805-1843. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1998.

Plaisance, Aloysius. "The Choctaw Trading House, 1803-1822." Alabama Historical Quarterly 16 (Fall-Winter 1954): 393-423.

Sources

1. ↑ http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1476#sthash.1WCVhlLQ.dpuf
2. ↑ http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1476#sthash.1WCVhlLQ.dpuf

• http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=26236017

• http://www.geni.com/people/James-Taylor-Gaines/6000000000641887916