Mayfield Family History & Genealogy

A group of interested descendants and friends of those buried in Hopewell Baptist
Cemetery met recently to plan for the clearing, fencing and future maintenance of
the cemetery. The cemetery is located in Franklin Township, Floyd County, Indiana.
The land for the log church which no longer stands and the cemetery was deeded in
1837 by Robert and Martha Sampson LaFollette of the earliest if not the first white
settlers in Floyd County Indiana. Forrest Campbell, Roscoe Phillip Mayfield and Chester E. Toops were elected as trustees of the newly formed Hopewell Cemetery
Association. Those interested in assisting with the above projects and the restoration
of this historic cemetery may send their donations to the secretary - treasurer Mr. Forrest Campbell Georgetown, Indiana, Route No.3. Another meeting is planned within the year and it is hoped that those interested in Old Hopewell Cemetery may
attend. Further notice will be sent to the papers of the time and place. Those present
were Forrest Campbell, Roscoe Phillip Mayfield, E. Heinze, Chester E. Toops, Evelyn
Sampson Richardson, Mrs. Emma Heinze, Mrs. Margaret Kinzer, Mrs. Edna Ketzner,
Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Gresham, Mr. and Mrs. Curtis Hartman, Mr. and Mrs. William
LaFollette, Morris White, Terry Kinzer and Larry Hartman.

On January 24, 1926, Floyd County was rocked by the news that they had lost one of their finest. Floyd County Sheriff's Deputy Daniel Alonzo Mayfield had been shot and killed during an altercation with suspected bank robbers, making him the first, and to date the last, Floyd
County officer to die in the line of duty. Now 77 years later, one officer wants to insure that Mayfield is not forgotten. A lot of people knew what had been passed down, but few really
knew the facts, Floyd County Police officer Jeff Firkins said. Firkins has worked to get Mayfield's name added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. It is a lot like the Vietnam Memorial, Firkins said. Any officer killed in the line of
duty can make it on the wall. The ceremony will be held in May as part of National Police Week. It is to honor the nation's law enforcement officers and pays special attention to those
who have given their lives in the line of duty. As part of the ceremony, the names of those
officers newly engraved on the memorial will be read during a candlelight vigil. My bigest regret is that it took us this long to do this for him, Firkins said. Mayfield, along with Sheriff Jacob Yenowine and three New Albany Police officers, were called on to head off two cars containing six men who had just broken into Farmer's State Bank in Lanesville, Indiana.
According to a Tribune article published a day after the shooting, the officers intercepted the two cars at 4:00 a.m. as the vehicles sped into New Albany's west end. A gunfight ensued, in the middle of which Mayfield was shot once in the head. He died at the scene. Many people
would later contend that it was the would be robbers that fired the bullet that killed Mayfield, but in fact, a fellow officer who accidentally hit Mayfield while trying to stop the
cars. No official announcement was ever made about just who fired the shot, and no one was ever brought to trial. The body of an ex-convict dead of a fatal gunshot wound and believed to
be the driver of one the cars was found in a culvert beneath a road a week later. Firkins disagrees with that assumption that an officer's bullet killed Mayfield, and politicians at the time covered up the facts. I think that if that happened today, technology would prove that the bullet came from the burglars, Firkins said. There is nothing I've found that would
point to any other conclusions. The incident was major news at the time, and issues of The Tribune spoke of rewards for arrest of the bandits dead or alive. Then Prosecutor Chester V. Lorch vowed to bend over backwards to send them to the chair if they are caught. It was huge news at the time, Firkins said. But it has been so long a lot of people don't know about it.
Despite extensive research, Firkins is unable to find any surviving family members. If any of
them are still living, they would be invited to participate in the memorial service in Washington, Firkins said. An invitation and more details will be sent to the department and to
any surviving family members in the latter part of March. Anyone with any information concerning the whereabouts of Mayfield's family can call Firkins at 812-948-5400.