Samuel Austin Lee was the eldest son of Nathan Lee and Hannah Dixon, a Quaker family with roots in North Carolina and Tennessee. His grandfather, William Lee, an immigrant from County Derry, Ulster, Ireland, married Susannah Pike on July 13, 1758 at Cane Creek monthly meeting (MM) in Orange County, North Carolina. Nathan Lee was born in 1777 in North Carolina and died in 1837 in Cass County, Michigan. Nathan Lee was received on transfer from Spring MM in North Carolina to Lost Creek MM in Jefferson County, Tennessee July 23, 1803. It is likely that he transferred to Newbury MM in Blount County in 1808. In 1810 he requested that his minor children, Samuel, Susanna and Anne "be joined in membership with friends" and they were received as members by the Newbury MM. Samuel Lee remained a member of the Society of Friends until May 1, 1824 when he was "disowned from being a member of our society" apparently for "accomplishing his marriage contrary to discipline" and "for permitting music and dancing to be performed in his house" (excerpts from the Minutes of the Newbury Monthly Meeting). Samuel Lee married Mary Hackney August 21, 1823 in Blount County, Tennessee. They had settled in Polk County, Missouri by 1840 and later lived in Robberson Township, Greene County. Children of this couple were: Elizabeth Jane Lee Brient, John Austin Lee, Richard Ishmael Lee, George Rogers Lee, Samuel Winters Lee, Hannah Lee Vann (all born in Tennessee), and Charlotte Emily Lee, Mary Ann Lee Horner, Charles Thornton Lee, Susannah Maldarin Lee McLain, and Louisa Malvina Lee Thompson (all born in Missouri). His will can be found in Greene County Will Book A, page 683. He was a farmer.
(Sources: 1. Minutes of the Newbury Monthly Meeting, Friendsville, TN 1808-1848; 2. US Federal Census Records; 3. Family Records; 4. Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, V. 1).

Jim L. Wilson