Cofield to Speak at Upcoming Historical and Genealogical Society Meeting

Local author and historian John Cofield will be the guest speaker at the upcoming meeting of the Lafayette County Historical and Genealogical Society.

The meeting will be held at 2:30 p.m. on Jan. 22 in the Genealogical room of the Oxford Library.

The public is invited.

Cofield will talk about the Cofields coming to Oxford in 1928, and how he ended up writing his two books, based on the fact that his family “greased the skids” for him. He will speak on how he uses Facebook to gather information and pictures and the tremendous help he has received from many Oxonians. 

He will also tell about how his grandfather, Colonel Cofield and William Faulkner became close friends.

Cofield grew up in Oxford and writes for several publications and is considered to be one of Oxford’s leading historians.

He is the son of renowned Ole Miss photographer, Jack Cofield. His grandfather, “Colonel” Cofield, was William Faulkner’s personal photographer, and for decades was the Ole Miss Annual photographer.

In 2017, Cofield and his late brother, Glenn, established Cofield Press and compiled and published

“Oxford, Mississippi, the Cofield Collection” – a pictorial and written history of the town using photographs from many sources. Last fall, he released the second volume in the collection and is currently working on a third edition.

Cofield will take questions after the program.

Staff report