Gaines County was created on August 21, 1876, organized on October 24, 1905, and named for James Gaines, who was born in Virginia in 1779, established a ferry across the Sabine River in 1819, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a member of the Congress of the Republic. Gold lured him to California, where he died. Gaines County became a country of cattle, oil and farming, with Seminole as the county seat.