The community of East Mayfield was built here in 1912 and named for Texas Railroad Commissioner Earle B. Mayfield. Formed around the large lumber mill built by Hiram Knox of the Knox Lumber Company, the town was incorporated in 1914. It had a population of about 1,200 and included homes, businesses, churches, a school, movie theater and a hospital. Timber on the company's land was depleted, and when the mill burned in 1937, it was not rebuilt. The town declined and most of its residents moved away; many of the buildings were abandoned.