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.

During the Civil War, the Jackson Purchase area, including Mayfield, strongly supported the Confederate cause.

In 1907, Fulton County judge Herbert Carr recalled that the Mayfield Convention adopted a resolution for secession.

Historian Berry Craig argues that the convention believed Kentucky would eventually secede and a resolution to break away was unnecessary.

Surviving records do show that the convention adopted resolutions condemning President Abraham Lincoln for "waging a bloody and cruel war" against the South, urging Gov.

Beriah Magoffin to resist Union forces, and praising him for refusing to answer Lincoln's demand for soldiers.

They also condemned the Federal government for providing "Lincoln guns" to Union sympathizers in eastern Kentucky.

They called for reinforcements from Fulton County, and fatally shot Will Suett, a young innocent black man getting off the train.

The case was finally closed nearly seven years later with the help of a local amateur investigator named Susan Galbreath and Tom Mangold, a British journalist.

[14] During the evening of December 10, 2021, a destructive long-track tornado impacted areas of Kentucky including Mayfield, causing significant amounts of damage and leveling most of downtown.

[15] The roof of Mayfield Consumer Products, a candle-making factory, collapsed during the tornado, with the fear that dozens died trapped within the building's remnants.

Many had gathered in a tornado shelter and left after the storm, and without power and phones they weren't quickly located and accounted for.

[21] The Purchase Parkway (designated as a future part of Interstate 69) forms a bypass to the northwest of Mayfield, running along or close to the city limits.

U.S. Route 45 leads north from Mayfield 26 miles (42 km) to Paducah on the Ohio River and southwest to Fulton.

[citation needed] The Clothiers were the first team to integrate the Kitty League when they employed African-American and Mayfield native Mickey Stubblefield as a pitcher during the 1952 season.

Mayfield Independent City School District was established on July 1, 1908, with the selection and meeting of its first Board Members, organized by Mr. W.J.