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Kingston, Tennessee

Kingston, Tennessee
City
Kingston
Kingston
Location of Kingston, Tennessee
Location of Kingston, Tennessee
Coordinates: 35°52′20″N 84°31′30″W / 35.87222°N 84.52500°W / 35.87222; -84.52500Coordinates: 35°52′20″N 84°31′30″W / 35.87222°N 84.52500°W / 35.87222; -84.52500
Country United States
State Tennessee
County Roane
Settled 1792
Incorporated 1799
Named for Maj. Robert King, officer at Fort Southwest Point
Area
 • Total 7.8 sq mi (20.3 km2)
 • Land 7.1 sq mi (18.4 km2)
 • Water 0.7 sq mi (1.9 km2)
Elevation 764 ft (233 m)
Population (2010)
 • Total 5,934
 • Density 835/sq mi (322.5/km2)
Time zone Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
 • Summer (DST) EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP code 37763
Area code(s) 865
FIPS code 47-39620
GNIS feature ID 1290257
Website www.mykingstontn.com

Kingston is a city in and the county seat of Roane County, Tennessee, United States. It had a population of 5,934 at the 2010 United States census, and is included in the Harriman Micropolitan Statistical Area. Kingston is adjacent to Watts Bar Lake.

Kingston has its roots in Fort Southwest Point, which was built just south of present-day Kingston in 1792. At the time, Southwest Point was on the fringe of the legal settlement area for Euro-Americans. A Cherokee village, headed by Chief Tollunteeskee, was situated just across the river, at what is now Rockwood. In 1805, Colonel Return J. Meigs, who operated out of Southwest Point, was appointed Cherokee Agent, effectively moving the agency from the Tellico Blockhouse to Southwest Point. The city of Kingston was established on October 23, 1799, as part of an effort to partition Knox County (the initial effort to form a separate county failed, but succeeded two years later). Kingston was named after Major Robert King, an officer at Fort Southwest Point in the 1790s.

On September 21, 1807, Kingston was Tennessee's state capital for one day. The Tennessee General Assembly convened in Kingston that day due to an agreement with the Cherokee, who had been told that if the Cherokee Nation ceded the land that is now Roane County, Kingston would become the capital of Tennessee. After adjourning that day, the Assembly resumed meeting in Knoxville.

At the outset of the Civil War in 1861, Kingston was selected as the site of the third session of the East Tennessee Convention, which attempted to form a new, Union-aligned state in East Tennessee. Due to the Confederate occupation of the region, however, this third session, which was scheduled for August 1861, never took place. In October 1861, William B. Carter and several co-conspirators planned the East Tennessee bridge burnings from a command post in Kingston.


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