It was almost purple, his father recalls. Informant: So, what my brother told me is that theres a story that there are people in the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia, near the campus I guess, and there is skin is blue. Rednecks are hailed as being great in our song lyrics. Patrick was all hunched down in the hall. Zach took the doctor even farther up Copperhead Hollow to see his Aunt Bessie Fugate, who was blue. It seems as if this area is generally, more wealthy than the other cities on this list. He was a French orphan who knew nothing of his lineage. The Fugate family of Kentucky once lived in the isolated community of Troublesome Creek. He injected the Ritchie siblings with 100 milligrams of the blue dye and didn't have to wait long to see results. His car gave out on the dirt road to Zachs house, and the doctor had to borrow a Jeep from a filling station. Written family records do not indicate Martin's skin color, but family legend says he was blue. They went over to Patrick and Rachel Ritchies house and injected each of them with 100 milligrams of methylene blue. It run in that generation who lived up and down Ball [Creek]., They looked like anybody else, cept they had the blue color, Stacy says, sitting in a chair in his plaid flannel shirt and suspenders, next to a cardboard box where a small black piglet, kept as a pet, is squealing for his bottle. The boy inherited his fathers lankiness and his mothers slightly nasal way of speaking. He recounted how, after hearing the story for the first time, he and his roommates would make a show of continuously checking to see if their other friends lips or skin ever looked blue. Hearing this story and conducting some research of my own led me to believe that people love to come up with their explanation for things they cannot explain, no matter how perplex. Trump's leading MAGA-loving insurrectionist Steve Bannon got himself so worked up this week he dropped an f-bomb. url('//www.incandina.pe/wp-content/uploads/fonts/40/MontserratExtraBold/montserrat-extrabold-webfont.woff') format('woff'), 702 ft (214 m) Time zone: UTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) Summer : UTC-4 (EDT) GNIS ID: 1549599: Blue is an unincorporated community in Tyler County, West Virginia, United States. Yes, West Virginia is among the poorest if not the poorest state in the union as well as one of the most uneducated and least economically developed. A Brief Appalachian History. They were bluern hell, Cawein says. West Virginia Get facts and photos about the 35th state. The "bluest" of the blue Fugates, Luna Stacy, had 13 children and lived to age 84. That five-star symbol is the same as the one on the Friendly City flagwhich is drawing approval well outside of West Virginia. Some say 99%. Jaculatorias A San Antonio De Padua, After analyzing all cities with a decent amount of people in them, we came up with this list as The Most Redneck Cities in West Virginia: Many of these are types of places where old redneck ladies drive their motorized wheelchairs down the middle of town, towing their grandkids in a wagon. Doctors were so astonished by the color of Benjy Stacys skin that they raced him by ambulance from the maternity ward in the hospital near Hazard to a medical clinic in Lexington. Most of them old people went by that name the blue Fugates. There was always speculation in the hollows about what made the blue people blue: heart disease, a lung disorder, the possibility proposed by one old-timer that their blood is just a little closer to their skin. But no one knew for sure, and doctors rarely paid visits to the remote creekside settlements where most of the blue Fugates lived until well into the 1950s. Doctors were so astonished by the color of Benjy Stacys skin that they raced him by ambulance from the maternity ward in the hospital near Hazard to a medical clinic in Lexington. The doctors finally came to the conclusion that Benjys color was due to blood inherited from generations back.. Bluefield State is committed to being the region's leading institution of higher education. He married a red-haired American named Elizabeth Smith who had a very pale complexion and their union formed a genetic mutation that resulted in their descendants being born with blue skin. For the first time in their lives, they were pink. Cawein cheers their bad luck not out of malice but out of a deep respect for the blue people of Troublesome Creek. As it was, the Fugates stayed in the same area well into the 20th century. [9], Benjamin Stacy, born in 1975, was the last known descendant of the Fugates to have been born exhibiting the characteristic blue color of the disorder, though he quickly lost his blue skin tone, exhibiting only blue tinges on his lips and fingertips when he became cold or agitated.[5]. The railroad didnt come through eastern Kentucky until the coal mines were developed around 1912, and it took another 30 or 40 years to lay down roads along the local creeks. Cawein advised giving the child methylene blue and not worrying about it. Some sites say 100%. Bluefield State University is a member school of the Thurgood . Cancel any time, no strings attached. Faris, David. See the answer. It was caused, Scott speculated, by an absence of the enzyme diaphorase from their red blood cells. Rednecks love to shoot their guns and fish, and there are a really high number of ammo stores and bait shops in the area, per person. We use data, analytics, and a sense of humor to determine the dirt on places across the country. After analyzing all cities with a decent amount of people in them, we came up with this list as The Most Redneck Cities in West Virginia: Many of these are types of places where old redneck ladies drive their motorized wheelchairs down the middle of town, towing their grandkids in a wagon. Cut off from contact with the wider population, they married cousins, aunts and other closely related kin, which greatly increased the odds of inheriting the condition. Most lived to their 80s and 90s without serious illness associated with the skin discoloration. Cawein is no stranger to eccentricities of the body. As three bald and blue men explore our world, together we'll discover music, laughter and surprises at every turn. A new playing surface, FieldTurf Revolution 2.5, was installed in 2016, giving West Virginia one of the country's safest and most . If enough blood is "infected" with this faulty type of hemoglobin, it changes from red to an almost purple-ish dark blue. Tests for abnormal hemoglobin were negative. They were like any other 1800s family except they liked inbreeding. try{ e.c=jQuery(e.c);var i=jQuery(window).width(),t=9999,r=0,n=0,l=0,f=0,s=0,h=0; In the isolated hollows of rural Kentucky, they were known as the blue Fugates and the blue Combses. They were bluern hell, Cawein says. Population: 18,763Bars per capita: 6th in West VirginiaFishing/bait shops per capita: 4thMobile home parks per capita: 5th. The antidote worked quickly but patients were required to take daily doses as it passed quickly through the urine. By Jamie Kiffel-Alcheh Fast Facts Nickname: The Mountain State Statehood: 1863; 35th state Population (as of July, 2016): 1,831,102. 12. West Virginia's House congressional districts run from east to west, creating a three-way split that fractures pockets of blue support in the far northern and southwestern parts of the state . Over time, fewer and fewer babies were born blue, and those who were took a methylene blue pill once a day to put the pink back in their cheeks. "For the first time in their lives, they were pink. We do not feel less-fortunate. '"He was almost purple,"' his father, Alva Stacy, recalls." They sing in the Stacy Family Gospel Band and have provided their children with a beautiful home and a menagerie of pets, including horses. West Virginians became the prototypical hillbillies, and incest served as a crude scientific explanation for their downtrodden social condition. Well, as you can imagine, I really examined them. Cawein eventually found a small population of people in the back woods of Appalachia, many with a blue skin disorder. But by 3 years old and . } "> There are other ways to get blue skin without inheriting it, though. This brief history has been gleaned from old family records, correspondence with other members, and histories of Ritchie, Barbour, Harrison and Randolph Counties, West Virginia. Blood cells always looked so beautiful to me, he says. You may now brag to your friends and share this endlessly on your Facebook walls. Cause, you know, rednecks like to hunt, drink, smoke and shoot things. Benjy Stacy is one of the last of the blue Fugates. the blue color was gone from their skin," Cawein said. In normal people hemoglobin is converted to methemoglobin at a very slow rate. Lunas father, Levy Fugate, was one of Zachariah Fugates sons. Within a few minutes. The Wilson Family of West Virginia. After ruling out heart and lung diseases, the doctor suspected methemoglobinemia, a rare hereditary blood disorder that results from excess levels of methemoglobin in the blood. Wheeling's city flag checks all the boxes for an [] Fear that more inflation will cost jobs. One could inherit the gene, not get the blood disorder, but pass the gene on to a child. The West Virginia motto is Montani semper liberi, and the state is one of the most mountainous in the country; sometimes it is called the "little Switzerland" of America, and once I heard an irreverent local citizen call it the "Afghanistan of the United States. Scott, E.M. The relation of diaphorase of human erythrocytes to inheritance of methemolglobinemia, Journal of Clinical Investigation, 39, 1960.3. He helped isolate an antidote for cholera, and he did some of the early work on L-dopa, the drug for Parkinsons disease. Her name was Ruth Pendergrass, and she had been trying to stir up medical interest in the blue people ever since a dark blue woman walked into the county health department one bitterly cold afternoon and asked for a blood test. Cawein and his colleagues published their research on hereditary diaphorase deficiency in the Archives of Internal Medicine (April, 1964) in 1964. They took the doctor to see their uncle, who was blue, too. All them old fellers way back then was blue. The antidote worked quickly but patients were required to take daily doses as it passed quickly through the urine. the blue color was gone from their skin, the doctor said. As coal mining and the railroads brought progress to Kentucky, the blue Fugates started moving out of their communities and marrying other people. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. For more West Virginia reading, check out: In order to rank the most redneck cities in West Virginia, we had to determine what criteria makes a redneck. Martin Fugate was a French orphan who emigrated to Kentucky in 1820 to claim a land grant on the wilderness banks of Troublesome Creek. Ask the Explainer. When Two Strangers Lost the Genetic Lottery, Special Offer on Antivirus Software From HowStuffWorks and TotalAV Security, Human Genetics: Concepts and Applications, reactions to certain topical pain relievers. In online research, there was no mention made of "blue" people as recorded in the genealogy book, The Fugate Family of Russell County Virginia, published in 1986, but it has been confirmed in the Fugate discussions on the Genforum. If enough blood is "infected" with this faulty type of hemoglobin, it changes from red to an almost purple-ish dark blue. Of their seven children, four were reported to be blue. If youll notice, he observes, tracing lines on his familys chart, which lists his mothers and his fathers great grandfather as Henley Fugate, Im kin to myself.. Martin Fugate and Elizabeth Smith,[2] who had married and settled near Hazard, Kentucky in around 1820, were both carriers of the recessive methemoglobinemia (met-H) gene. Are Ferne Mccann's Parents Together, Lives in the south or midwest (or West Virginia), Walmarts, Golden Corrals, Bass Pro Shops, and Dollar Generals nearby. Benjy Stacy is one of the last of the blue Fugates. Scott was a Public Health Service doctor at the Arctic Health Research Center in Anchorage who had discovered hereditary methemoglobinemia among Alaskan Eskimos and Indians. In his research, he found a 1960 article by E. M. Scott that was reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Consignment Eyeglass Frames, score: 5 of 27 (18%) required scores: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 list stats leaders vote Vote print comments. Population: 9,277High school graduation rate 73%Chew factor: 3Gun stores: 5th. From California herself, the informant was very curious to hear about what the people of West Virginia were like. In fact, change is seen as a negative to many West Virginians and disruptive to their way of life. If you stayed awake in high-school biology, you might remember that blood is red because red blood cells are packed with proteins called hemoglobin. Instead, football players bore a bronzesque gold helmet emblazoned with a blue outline of the state of West Virginia and the letters "WVU" inside an oval. Native Americans first began to gather in the Appalachian Mountains some 16,000 years ago. Its nothing.. Apparently, it shows more easily when theyre cold!. The bluest Fugates I ever saw was Luna and her kin, says Carrie Lee Kilburn, a nurse who works at the rural medical center called Homeplace Clinic. You might actually call Hurricane home of the rednecks with paychecks. The Blue Ridge was reached in 1670, and in 1671 another expedition encountered the first westward-flowing stream, the New River, in southwestern Virginia. Since rail lines and paved roads didn't make it out to Troublesome Creek for nearly a century, the blue recessive gene was passed down to generations of Fugates and neighboring families, all of whom came to be known as "the blue people of Kentucky.". 9. The blood disorder is inherited as a simple recessive trait - meaning that to get the disorder, a person would have to inherit two genes, one from each parent. Some of us finished high school and became the "dreaded wife and mother"-as society portrays it. 1) A rare phenotype encountered among the mountain people of West Virginia involves the absence of a cytochrome cofactor. In another neighborhood of this rust-belt city of 46,000, Pam and Ted Keesee have their own. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Scott was a Public Health Service doctor at the Arctic Health Research Center in Anchorage who had discovered hereditary methemoglobinemia among Alaskan Eskimos and Indians. So close! My grandmother Luna on my dads side was a blue Fugate. Devil Anse Hatfield, patriarch of Hatfield clan of 19th-century Hatfield-McCoy feud. Chapter 1: The Climate of Post-War America Chapter 2: West Virginia - The Violent Heritage Chapter Excise tax on bottled soft drinks, syrups and dry mixtures; disposition thereof. Stumped, the doctor turned to the medical literature for a clue. His lips and fingernails still turn a shade of purple-blue when he gets cold or angry a quirk that so intrigued medical students after Benjys birth that they would crowd around the baby and try to make him cry. All he needed was a substance that could "donate" a free electron to the methemoglobin, allowing it to bond with oxygen. A reference to "the Huntsville subgroup" is made in the American version of television sitcom Shameless when Kevin Ball (played by Steve Howey) discovers that he may have ancestors from that group.[10]. Eventually, a nurse named Ruth Pendergrass heard of them, and, along with a hematologist named Madison Cawein III, decided to go meet these locally famous blue people in person. "Within a few minutes. Come on, Grafton rednecks. "I started asking them questions: 'Do you have any relatives who are blue?' Benjy was a pretty big item in the hospital, his mother says with a grin. DynamicFrameworks - Elite ThemeForest Author. They were delighted., They changed colors! remembered Pendergrass. Martin and Elizabeth set up housekeeping on the banks of Troublesome and began a family. When Eleanor Roosevelt visited West Virginia mining towns in the 1930s, national newspapers ran pictures of rundown shacks and barefoot kids in rags, which left a lasting impression of the state as a backwater. src: url('//www.incandina.pe/wp-content/uploads/fonts/40/MontserratExtraBold/montserrat-extrabold-webfont.eot?#iefix') format('embedded-opentype'), Mountain People. Elizabeth had pale white skin, almost translucent. If you stayed awake in high-school biology, you might remember that blood is red because red blood cells are packed with proteins called hemoglobin. Laurel Wheeler and family, Buena Vista, Rockbridge County, Virginia. They were poor people, concurs Nurse Pendergrass, but they were good.References1. Martin and Elizabeth had seven children, four being born blue; Zachariah, who was blue, married his mother's sister. Stacy recalls that his father-inlaw, Levy Fugate, was part of the family that showed blue. 20 Fine Arts Drive, Morgantown, WV 26506. https://artmuseum.wvu.edu. This small enclave was no longer isolated and they began to disperse and marry outside of their little clan diminishing the effect of the "blue" gene. The only thing Stacy cant or wont remember is that his wife Luna was blue. remembered Pendergrass. "The beginning of this story is so wild because Martin moved to Kentucky from Europe and married a complete stranger, a nonrelative who just happened to have the same mutation," says Lewis. The gene would most likely appear in an inbred line. Thankfully, Benjy lost his blue shade after a few weeks and the only lingering effects were blue fingernails and lips when he was cold or angry. The last known "blue" Fugate descendant was born in 1975. Archives of Internal Medicine, April, 1964.2. This condition does, in fact, cause blue-tinted. The man who discovered the cure for methemoglobinemia was Madison Cawein III, a hematologist (blood doctor) at the University of Kentucky who heard tales of the "blue people" and went looking for specimens in the 1960s. In normal people hemoglobin is converted to methemoglobin at a very slow rate. Cawein would have no part of it, and he related with glee the news that a film crew sent to Kentucky from Hollywood fled the two mean dogs in every front yard without any film. (Click here for a video.) Martin Fugate carried the recessive gene and the odds that he could have married a woman with the same recessive gene were overwhelming - but that is exactly what happened. In 2020, U.S. News and World Report released a list of the 50 Most Beautiful Places in the World, and they acknowledged what everyone in West Virginia already knows . Martin and Elizabeth Fugates blue children multiplied in this natural isolation tank. Martin and Elizabeth had seven children, four being born blue; Zachariah, who was blue, married his mother's sister. Investigators are looking for help to find the people responsible for the fire at 2005 County Road 14 in Rayland. Written family records do not indicate Martin's skin color, but family legend says he was blue. Martin and Elizabeth Fugates blue children multiplied in this natural isolation tank. Many wonder why eggs are so diverse. After ruling out heart and lung diseases, the doctor suspected methemoglobinemia, a rare hereditary blood disorder that results from excess levels of methemoglobin in the blood. You couldve done even better than that. '"He was almost purple,"' his father, Alva Stacy, recalls." West Virginia Blue People Text The following piece was collected at a dinner table with a group of girls out celebrating a friend's birthday. Benjy lost his blue tint within a few weeks, and now he is about as normal looking a seven-year-old boy as you could hope to find. Howells Pawn and Guns, New Martinsville, WV. What Happened to the Blue People? Martin and Elizabeth had seven children, four of whom were "bright blue" according to Fugate family lore. "That's crazy.". Hearing this story and conducting some research of my own led me to believe that people love to come up with their explanation for things they cannot explain, no matter how perplex. Updated: Feb 27, 2023 / 06:18 PM EST. The Blue Fugates have essentially now gone from reality to legend. 2023 Science Classroom Teacher Resources. They have the 2nd most bars and the 2nd most trailer/mobile home parks per capita in the state. Cawein was determined to find a cause and possibly a solution to help this small group of isolated Appalachian people. It was real bad in her, Alva Stacy, the boys father, explained. When you click through real estate links on our site, we earn an affiliate commission. Population: 5,626High school graduation rate: 72%Gun stores per capita: 5th in WVFishing/bait per capita: 3rd in the state. Such people tend to be very blue only at birth, probably because newborns normally have smaller amounts of diaphorase. Trudging up and down the hollows, fending off the two mean dogs that everyone had in their front yard, the doctor and the nurse would spot someone at the top of a hill who looked blue and take off in wild pursuit. Where people have deer horns on their hoods. The trait is recessive and when homozygous gives affected individuals, a distinctly blue color to their skin and chronic weakness. Finally, one day when the frustrated doctor was idling inside the Hazard clinic, Patrick and Rachel Ritchie walked in. They have the 2nd most bars and the 2nd most trailer/mobile home parks per capita in the state. When Benjy was born with purple skin, his relatives told the perplexed doctors about his great grandmother Luna Fugate. Whoo-whee, New Martinsville! Written family records do not indicate Martin's skin color, but family legend says he was blue. One came from a blue Flugate whod joined the Army and been sent to Panama, where his son was born bright blue. 11 HINTS YOU MIGHT BE DESCENDED FROM ALIENS, FUGATES OF KENTUCKY: SKIN BLUER THAN LAKE LOUISE As My World Turns, If Your Skin Is Blue, Dont Marry Your Other Blue Shaded Relative interesting12, Daily News investigates: Mystery of family with blue skin solved | Bazaar Daily News, If Your Skin Is Blue, Don't Marry Your Other Blue Shaded Relative - interesting12. The enzyme eventually builds to normal levels in most children and to almost normal levels in those like Benjy, who carry one gene. Generations later, a descendant of Martin Fugate, Benjy Stacy, would be born "blue". The story of an Appalachian malady, an inquisitive doctor, and a paradoxical cure. Theres a debate as to what percentage of Hurricane is white. Elkins Journeez Bar, Elkins, WV. Where is this area located in eastern KY? The following piece was collected at a dinner table with a group of girls out celebrating a friends birthday. Median Income. Levy married a Ritchie girl and bought 200 acres of rolling land along Ball Creek. So close! She was as blue a woman as I ever saw.. Because of the dispersion of fluids, the solution only lasts for about a day so the carrier would have to drink a serving every day. ( Returnto the corrected sentence.). History of West Virginia. Larry Gibson, environmental activist; founder of Keeper of the Mountains Foundation. I can see that old blue running out of my skin, he confided. The arrival of enslaved Africans in the area dates back to the 16th century. url('//www.incandina.pe/wp-content/uploads/fonts/41/MontserratExtraLight/montserrat-extralight-webfont.woff') format('woff'), by F. William Sunderman, J.B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia PA, 1964. John Stacy still lives on Lick Branch of Ball Creek. The marriage of one of their blue boys, Zachariah, to his mothers sister triggered the line of succession that would result in the birth, more than 100 years later, of Benjy Stacy. H & S Sporting Goods, Princeton, WV. Incredibly, Benjy had inherited a gene dating back over 162 years! Give the gift of knowledge with our official 'did you know' book. Robert C. Byrd, a Democrat, represented the state of West Virginia in Congress for over 57 years, as a Member of the House from the now-defunct 6th District from 1953 to 1959, and as a United States Senator from 1959 to 2010. $ 26,354. Adena burial mound. Poisoned water shut down state capital and exposed endemic carelessness in oversight. In fact, the last known blue Fugate was born in 1975, and his skin color faded to normal as he grew up. Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks.com article: Dave Roos Published November 21, 2021 Updated November 29, 2021 For nearly 200 years, the Fugates known as the blue people of Kentucky remained largely sealed off from the outside world as they passed their blue skin from generation to generation. He tested first for abnormal hemoglobin, but the results were negative. Finding it ridiculous herself, the Informant told me that she still enjoys being a part of the joke. Six generations after a French orphan named Martin Fugate settled on the banks of eastern Kentuckys Troublesome Creek with his redheaded American bride, his great-great-great great grandson was born in a modern hospital not far from where the creek still runs. Stacys son has built a modern house next door, but the old logger wont hear of leaving the cabin he built with timber he personally cut and hewed for Luna and their 13 children. He tested first for abnormal hemoglobin, but the results were negative. Cawein, in researching the family lines in Perry County, Kentucky and with the help of Fugate Family Bibles, found in fact, that the Fugates had married Fugates, had married first cousins, and had intermarried with families whose surnames were: Combs, Smith, Ritchie, and Stacy. West Virginia had just one carrier in its exchange in 2015 - Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield - although the carrier only offered 12 plans in 2014, and bumped that up to 14 in 2015. Cawein packed his black bag and rounded up Nurse Pendergrass for the big event. However, the disorder didn't seem to cause any special health problems. This is redneck wonderland. A transfusion was being prepared when Benjys grandmother spoke up. Methemoglobin which is blue, is a nonfunctional form of the red hemoglobin that carries oxygen. Methemoglobinemia can also be caused by reactions to certain topical pain relievers like benzocaine and xylocaine. General Blog . The search for blue people ensued. Theres lots of trucks in Grafton, WV. Said to have originated in Hampshire County, West Virginia. Different spellings of the surname sometimes include "Fugett" and "Fugitt". Start your free trial today to learn more about your ancestors using our powerful and intuitive search. It is documented that Fugates were born in the colonies in the mid 1600's but the original progenitor has not been confirmed. Scott also concluded that the condition was inherited as a simple recessive trait. Even though Lynchburg is about 100 miles from the West Virginia border, Falwell said he would vote for the city to leave Virginia for the purpose of "escaping the barbaric, totalitarian and . by Brian Farrell and Steven Cohen | Feb. 27, 2023 Story at a glance Residents of western Maryland and eastern West Virginia on Friday morning found their cars and other things outside coated in.
Claybar Funeral Home Obituaries, Articles B