George Strother Gaines

Who was George Strother Gaines?

George Strother Gaines was a leader in the Mississippi Territory and in both states formed from it, Mississippi and Alabama. At St. Stephens Alabama, as the duly appointed agent by the United States, he ran a government trading house meant to serve the Choctaws, and was trusted by them. In 1807, his brother Edmund Pendleton Gaines arrested Aaron Burr on charges of treason. Gaines also served as the president of the Mobile branch bank from 1833 to 1846. Gaines negotiated the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek between the United States and the Choctaws acquiring their lands in Alabama and Mississippi. At the request of the Choctaws, Gaines led an expedition to scout the prospective Choctaw lands in the Indian territory before the Choctaws reluctantly agreed to emigrate there. Gaines was charged with spending too much money on moving the Choctaw, although in comparison he accomplished the task in a relatively humane fashion. He is buried at Stateline Mississippi.