SOUTHWEST POINT, KINGSTON, TENNESSEE
sent by Mrs. B. C. Watkins, Harriman
Some historical facts gleaned from the following sources:
1. G. F. Mellen, miscellaneous papers, Vol. 2, page 73
2. Wells, Roane County.
3. Williams. Early Travels in the Tennessee Country.
4.  The Knoxville Gazette

In 1791-1793, Gen. John Sevier established a fort on the Clinch River at the present site of Kingston.  The main fort was near the famous Clark Springs which now supplies the town with water.  General Sevier called the military post Southwest Point.
A detachment of United States soldiers, under command of Capt. Abraham McClellan, was stationed there to protect the settlers and travelers from the Indians.  [Vonda's note: the site of this fort was very close to the Warrior's Path, a trail the Indians and later, the settlers, used to get through the mountainous country]  Thomas Brown was the first quartermaster; Dr. Daniel Rather was the surgeon.
The troops were stationed there until 1817.  It was an important place on the frontier.  Those who went from Knoxville and Knox County to the Cumberland settlements were accompanied by a detachment of soldiers from Southwest Point.  All that country was then a wilderness and was Indian territory.
In 1792, Capt. Samuel Hadley, at the head of his soldiers, went forth from Southwest Point and was captured and imprisoned by Indians but later returned.
William Lea was captured but escaped August, 1792.  Abraham Byrd was wounded.  Samuel Russell, bearing dispatches from the Cumberland settlements to William Blount at Knoxville was wounded by the Indians at Southwest Point; the surgeon, Dr. Daniel Rather, dressed his wounds.
In 1794, Thomas Sharp Spencer started from Southwest Point to Nashville with money and other valuables and was murdered on the Cumberland road at Spencers Hill.  [Vonda's note:  could this be how William's son Spencer got his name?]
On March 6, 1796, Andrew Michaux, botanist and agent of Genet, stopped at Southwest Point on his way to Knoxville.
In 1797, Capt. John Wade was commandant.
In 1797, Louis Phillippe, Duke of Orleans, afterwards King of France, and his brother, passed through and were entertained at Southwest Point.  The commandant had bread baked for them.
In 1799 Capt. Thomas Butler was in command at Southwest Point.
In 1799 the Tennesee legislature passed an act to establish a town at Southwest Point upon the land of Robert King.  The town was to be called Kingston.  At this time Davis' school for Cherokee Indians was in operation at Southwest Point.
In 1800 Bishop Francis Asbury was hospitably entertained at the home of Thomas N. Clark near Southwest Point.
In 1801 Roane County was created.
September 21, 1807, the General Assembly of Tennessee met at Kingston.  Thus Kingston, formerly Southwest Point, was for a time, the capital of the state.
John Riley was chief of the Cherokee Indians in this territory; he is buried in an unmarked grave by the side of Highway No. 58.  This highway runs through the old Hiawassee Purchase and was Cherokee country.
Kingston was a trading post and was on a beaten trail from New York and Washington to Texas.

We are pretty sure this is the same William Lee who was the son of Thomas and father of William II.  We know he was in this area, and that he was with those whites who first settled inner TN, especially Bledsoe Co.  Grandson Allen alluded to the family's loss of land in Bledsoe Co. due to a title dispute.
William was listed in the 25 Feb 1809 "Petition of Citizens who settled in the Indian Boundary Line before it was run and who left their improvements asking that some provision be made to restore their property when the Indian title is extinguished."  Apparently the Lees went in to KY about that time, where son William married Anne BROCK.
As the children grew older, the family went different directions.  We know they were in Orange Co. IN for a time, but some branches went back to TN and settled.  Vardemon was in Overton Co. TN in 1813 (petition to the TN General Assembly from citizens of Overton Co.) and in the 1820 Census.
William II and his family went to AL, where Anne died in Limestone Co. in 1832.  (See "Allen LEE's letter to Dr. Elisha Lightfoot LEE")
The KIRKLAND family was also in DeKalb Co. AL about the same time as the LEE family were there.  A Susannah KIRKLAND and Jeremiah RODEN were married in 1784 in SC, went to TN, then settled in Blount Co. AL before statehood in 1819.  By 1831, they were in DeKalb Co., where their branches scattered through northern AL. 
At least one of the LEE sons married a Cherokee woman--various branches have "family knowledge" of Cherokee ancestry.  The KIRKLAND family is one of those lines, and William and Elizabeth's son Allen discussed an Uncle George Kirkland with a cousin in the 1890s.  This cousin was the grandson of John LEE and Jane KIRKLAND, Dr. Elisha Lightfoot LEE.
We don't know the ancestry of Elizabeth. 
William was the grandson of William BRYAN and Elizabeth SMITH.  William BRYAN fought in the Revolutionary War, in a unit from Johnston Co. NC.  Several of the BRYAN descendants have filed for, and received, memberships in the Daughters of the American Revolution.