Mayfield: A Name From a Creek, a Legend, and a Tornado
Kentucky
Mayfield, the seat of Graves County in far western Kentucky, takes its name from a creek, and the creek takes its name from a legend. A Mississippi planter named George Mayfield was allegedly kidnapped, held for ransom, and shot while trying to escape, falling into the water that would carry his name. The town was platted in eighteen twenty-four along that creek.
On December tenth, twenty twenty-one, an EF-Four tornado ripped through Mayfield, and the night became national news when the roof of the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory collapsed on over a hundred workers inside. Eight workers died there. Questions followed about whether employees had been told they would lose their jobs if they left before the storm arrived.
The candle factory is gone now, and Mayfield is still finding its way back.
