Gainestown is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

on the

Alabama River The Alabama River, in the U.S. state of Alabama, is formed by the Tallapoosa River, Tallapoosa and Coosa River, Coosa rivers, which unite about north of Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery, near the town of Wetumpka, Alabama, Wetumpka. Over a co ...

in Clarke County,

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

, United States. It was named for

George Strother Gaines George Strother Gaines (1 May 1784 – 21 January 1873) was a federal Indian agent in the Mississippi Territory (today's Alabama and Mississippi). He began as the US Indian agent to the Choctaw, explored the country west of the Mississippi Riv ...

, who was the senior United States Indian agent in the region; he established a

trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory in European and colonial contexts, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically a trading post allows people from one geogr ...

here in 1809 for business with the

Choctaw The Choctaw ( ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States, originally based in what is now Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choct ...

, the predominant tribe. The exact date for the founding of the town is unclear. However, the community was being referred to as Gainestown by 1815, following the end of the

Creek War The Creek War (also the Red Stick War or the Creek Civil War) was a regional conflict between opposing Native American factions, European powers, and the United States during the early 19th century. The Creek War began as a conflict within th ...

and closure of the trading post in 1814. Gainestown grew to be a large town during the heyday of river-based transport, but a slow decline began after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. A tornado on March 26, 1911, destroyed at least 12 homes and much of the town. A contemporaneous account of the storm said that a

dry goods Dry goods is a historic term describing the type of product line a store carries, which differs by region. The term comes from the textile trade, and the shops appear to have spread with the mercantile trade across the British Empire (and Common ...

store in the town was destroyed, with fragments of its products found as far away as to the east, in Monroe County. Gainestown has three sites listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

: the Gainestown Methodist Church and Cemetery,

Gainestown Schoolhouse The Gainestown Schoolhouse is a historic school building on Clarke County, Alabama, Clarke County Road 29 in Gainestown, Alabama, Gainestown, Alabama, United States. It was built in 1919 as a one-room schoolhouse and now serves as a guesthouse f ...

, and the Wilson-Finlay House.

Geography

Gainestown is located at and has an elevation of .

References

Unincorporated communities in Alabama Unincorporated communities in Clarke County, Alabama {{ClarkeCountyAL-geo-stub