MAYFIELD

city, seat of Graves county, southwestern Kentucky, U.S., 25 mi (40 km) west of Kentucky Lake. It was settled about 1820 and named for a local creek into which according to legend a George Mayfield fell, mortally wounded by robbers. The New Orleans and Ohio Railroad arrived in 1854 and boosted its development as a market centre for dark-leaf tobacco, livestock, and grain. Light industry and extensive local deposits of ball clay (used for ceramics and china) have broadened its economic base. A monument marks the site of Camp Beauregard (1861), a Confederate Civil War base captured (1862) along with the city by Federal forces. Inc. 1823. Pop. (1990) 9,935.