Editing Mayfield, Kentucky (section)

===19th century===
Mayfield is in the center of the [[Jackson Purchase]], an eight-county region purchased by [[Isaac Shelby]] and [[Andrew Jackson]] from the [[Chickasaw]] people in 1818. Mayfield was established as the [[county seat]] of [[Graves County, Kentucky|Graves County]] in 1821, and the county was formally organized in 1823. John Anderson is believed to have been the first white settler, arriving in 1819 and building a log home on Mayfield Creek. In December 1821, Anderson was appointed county court clerk and moved about two and a half miles to the site that became Mayfield. According to Trabue Davis, the town's name originates indirectly from a gambler named Mayfield, who was kidnapped about 1817 at a racetrack near what is now [[Hickman, Kentucky|Hickman]]. He was carried to the site of today's Mayfield, where he carved his name into a tree in hopes that someone would see it. He tried to escape but drowned trying to cross what is now called Mayfield Creek. The town took its name from the creek.<ref name=traby>Davis, D. Trabue. ''[http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=kyetexts;cc=kyetexts;view=toc;idno=B92-146-29449923 Story of Mayfield Through a Century, 1823–1923]''.</ref>

The completion of the Memphis, New Orleans, and Northern Railroad in 1858 connected Mayfield with the outside world. Beginning with the founding of the Mayfield Woolen Mills in 1860, manufacturing clothing became the main industry in Mayfield for the next hundred years. The town was also a major market for loose-leaf [[tobacco]], and was part of the [[Black Patch Tobacco Wars|Black Patch]], where Dark Fired Tobacco was processed.

During the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], the Jackson Purchase area, including Mayfield, strongly supported the [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] cause. It has been called "Kentucky's [[South Carolina]]".<ref>Craig, Barry. "[http://www.jacksonpurchasehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/barry_4.pdf Kentucky's South Carolina: The Secession Crisis of 1860{{ndash}}1861]". Accessed 25 August 2013.</ref> On May 29, 1861, a group of Southern sympathizers from Kentucky and [[Tennessee]] met at the Graves County Courthouse to discuss the possibility of joining the Jackson Purchase to [[West Tennessee]]. Most records of the event are lost, probably due to an 1887 fire that destroyed the courthouse.