The Fugate Family of Russell County, Virginia: A Genealogy of the Descendants of Francis, Benjamin, Colbert, Zachariah, Henley & William Fugate, Settlers of Moccasin Valley from 1772. She remembers the story very easily, most often humorously, because she remembers the manner in which her brother told her. } For the first time in their lives, they were pink. Many wonder why eggs are so diverse. Those who are otherwise healthy with levels under 15% may exhibit minor symptoms or none at all. Tests for abnormal hemoglobin were negative. What Happened to the Blue People? Cawein packed his black bag and rounded up Nurse Pendergrass for the big event. Consignment Eyeglass Frames, As a bonus, theres a Golden Corral, several Dollar Stores and many Waffle Houses in the area. History of West Virginia. This condition does, in fact, cause blue-tinted. 10. Sometimes they married first cousins. The drugs effects are temporary, as methylene blue is normally excreted in the urine. In the isolated hollows of rural Kentucky, they were known as the blue Fugates and the blue Combses. 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. url('//www.incandina.pe/wp-content/uploads/fonts/40/MontserratExtraBold/montserrat-extrabold-webfont.svg#montserrat-extrabold-webfont') format('svg'); Such people tend to be very blue only at birth, probably because newborns normally have smaller amounts of diaphorase. 11. 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. Bluefield State University is a member school of the Thurgood . font-family: 'MontserratExtraBold'; Charleston. We are not making that up. Plus, we thought why not add in a few stereotypes? And a Walmart all to their own. Cancel any time, no strings attached. If this conversion continued, all the bodys hemoglobin would eventually be rendered useless. The search for blue people ensued. Well, as you can imagine, I really examined them. Methemoglobin levels over 50% may result in seizures, coma, and death. 20 Fine Arts Drive, Morgantown, WV 26506. https://artmuseum.wvu.edu. For the first time in their lives, they were pink. And when you look at the data, its clear this is a really solid place for a redneck to make home. Then he began to construct the family genealogy and traced their roots back to Martin and Elizabeth Fugate. Yep, thats right. The odds against it were incalculable, but Martin Fugate managed to find and marry a woman who carried the same recessive gene. "For the first time in their lives, they were pink. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,600],'roadsnacks_net-medrectangle-3','ezslot_0',606,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-roadsnacks_net-medrectangle-3-0');Using that criteria, its not hard to scrape the internet, run some scientific data on where rednecks might live in West Virginia, and then put out a list. The couple had eight children, including Luna. It is almost certain that Martin was a descendant of the Fugate family of Russell County, Virginia and probably of French origin. Devil Anse Hatfield, patriarch of Hatfield clan of 19th-century Hatfield-McCoy feud. He remembered that the Ritchie siblings "were really embarrassed about being blue." But by 3 years old and . Dern it, Princeton. This is redneck wonderland. Benjy Stacy is one of the last of the blue Fugates. Benjy was born in a maternity ward near Hazard, Kentucky and was rushed by ambulance to a medical clinic in Lexington to find help for his blue problem. Dr. Cawein injected the dye into the volunteers, and they were amazed to see how quickly their skin changed from blue to a healthy pink, then gradually to a Caucasian white. All he needed was a substance that could "donate" a free electron to the methemoglobin, allowing it to bond with oxygen. But Cawein knew from earlier studies that the body has an alternative method of converting methemoglobin back to normal. Bluefield State University (Bluefield State) is a university in Bluefield, West Virginia that is an historically black university.It is a part of West Virginia's public education system and converted to a university in the summer of 2022. Bannon Has A Moment. Beckley, WV. People who live in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle and parts of western Maryland found cars and other items coated in the dust from . 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. For some, though, there was a pain not seen in lab tests. The strain of inherited blue began to disappear as the recessive gene spread to families where it was unlikely to be paired with a similar gene. The disorder can cause heart abnormalities and seizures if the amount of methemoglobin in the blood exceeds 20 percent, but at levels between 10 and 20 percent it can cause blue skin without other symptoms. Excise tax on bottled soft drinks, syrups and dry mixtures; disposition thereof. I looked at other enzymes and nothing was wrong with them. } "The precipitous upland nature of the terrain makes naturally for three things: (1) poor communications; (2) fierce sectionalism; (3 . 8 November 2021. Its common. 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. All rights reserved. 5 years ago when I was on a swingerparty she got pregnant with me. So I knew we had the defect defined.. One look at Luke was enough to get those doctors down here in a hurry, says Pendergrass, who joined Cawein to look for more blue people. Blood cells always looked so beautiful to me, he says. 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. A transfusion was being prepared when Benjys grandmother spoke up. She also states that the union of Martin and Elizabeth were probably not the originators of the gene as their marriage took place too late. The last known "blue" Fugate descendant was born in 1975. Cawein drew lots of blood from the Ritchies and hurried back to his lab. It is documented that Fugates were born in the colonies in the mid 1600's but the original progenitor has not been confirmed. While the substance isnt harmful, large amounts of it will tint any tissue that has blood flowing to it a blue color. Embarrassed by their bluish hue, the families retreated even further from society, which only exacerbated the problem. If enough blood is "infected" with this faulty type of hemoglobin, it changes from red to an almost purple-ish dark blue. Generations later, a descendant of Martin Fugate, Benjy Stacy, would be born "blue". Different spellings of the surname sometimes include "Fugett" and "Fugitt". [2][7] Based on a report published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation in 1960 by a public health physician named E. M. Scott, who had studied a similar phenomenon among native Alaskans, Cawain concluded that a deficiency of the enzyme diaphorase resulted in an oxygen deficiency in the red blood cells, causing the blood to appear brown, which in turn made the skin of those affected appear blue. Stacy courted her, married her, and moved over from Troublesome Creek to make a living in timber on her daddys land. Typically, the term Melungeon refers to people from eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, eastern Tennessee and southern West Virginia, according to the Melungeon Heritage Association (MHA), but "related mixed-ancestry populations also include the Carmel Indians of southern Ohio; the Brown People of Kentucky; the Guineas of West Virginia; the 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. She and her husband Alva have a strong sense of family. 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. Written family records do not indicate Martin's skin color, but family legend says he was blue. al. It was caused, Scott speculated, by an absence of the enzyme diaphorase from their red blood cells. Mary (Dawley) Fugate, who answers quite a few queries and also helped compile the genealogy book, indicates that the siblings of Martin Fugate were not blue but he must have been a carrier. [8] His findings were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 1964. They were really embarrassed about being blue, he said. Elizabeth had pale white skin, almost translucent. This information supplied by John Graves whose uncle was the father of the child. This compares with the 20,000-25,000 human genes in 2.8 billion DNA base pairs. Two days of tests produced no explanation for skin the color of a bruised plum. They wouldnt come into the waiting room. The Fugate family intermarried with a neighbouring family for generations, which led to a relatively pure gene pool, often including the met-H gene. Laurel Wheeler and family, Buena Vista, Rockbridge County, Virginia. In 2006 he became the longest-serving Senator in history, and in 2009 the longest-serving member of Congress in . I can see that old blue running out of my skin, he confided. Incredibly, Benjy had inherited a gene dating back over 162 years! West Virginians became the prototypical hillbillies, and incest served as a crude scientific explanation for their downtrodden social condition. 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. All he needed was a substance that could "donate" a free electron to the methemoglobin, allowing it to bond with oxygen. Eventually, the recessive gene began to disappear once coal mining and the railroad opened the community to outsiders. 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. It can be brought on by several things: abnormal hemoglobin formation, an enzyme deficiency, and taking too much of certain drugs, including vitamin K, which is essential for blood clotting and is abundant in pork liver and vegetable oil. She looked like she was having a heart attack. "> Buckhannon is a town thats 95% white, where 3 out of 10 people didnt graduate from high school. You could tell how much it bothered them to be blue.. 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. Ask the Explainer. Book is out of print, borrowed from Special Collections at the St. Louis County Library, St. Louis, MO. For the Fugates, family members expressed the gene to varying degrees. Google Maps. That iron atom binds with oxygen, which is how red blood cells circulate oxygen throughout the body. 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 needed fresh blood to do an enzyme assay. 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. It can be brought on by several things: abnormal hemoglobin formation, an enzyme deficiency, and taking too much of certain drugs, including vitamin K, which is essential for blood clotting and is abundant in pork liver and vegetable oil. When Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, the portion now known as West Virginia broke off to form its own state. Generations later, a descendant of Martin Fugate, Benjy Stacy, would be born "blue". He injected the Ritchie siblings with 100 milligrams of the blue dye and didn't have to wait long to see results. The Wilson Family of West Virginia. Days of testing provided no answers; but then Benjy's grandmother told the doctor a story about the "blue" Fugates. Films That People Feel Guilty for Not Seeing. My first reaction to this story was wondering whether there was a scientific reason, or condition perhaps, that acted as a precursor to this belief of a skin condition that was a result of incest. They went over to Patrick and Rachel Ritchies house and injected each of them with 100 milligrams of methylene blue. New Martinsville has the 2nd most places to buy guns, the 2nd most fishing/bait shops and several places to get chew. I looked at other enzymes and nothing was wrong with them. Martin and Elizabeth had seven children, four of whom were "bright blue" according to Fugate family lore. So, youd think people who are rednecks would be proud to be called a redneck. Some of us finished high school and became the "dreaded wife and mother"-as society portrays it. One of em I remember seeing him when I was just a boy Blue Anze, they called him. Blue People of West Virginia | . Population: 5,258Walmart rank: 1stChew factor: 1stAmmo per capita: 9th. Scott, E.M. The relation of diaphorase of human erythrocytes to inheritance of methemolglobinemia, Journal of Clinical Investigation, 39, 1960.3. Admitted in 1863, West Virginia was the . According to the official dictionary definition of a redneck, and based on stereotypes that the internet says are true, using science to determine the most redneck cities in a state cant be too far off. They have the 2nd most bars and the 2nd most trailer/mobile home parks per capita in the state. Nancy Hanks, mother of Abraham Lincoln; distant cousin of Tom Hanks. So I knew we had the defect defined.. 1995-2022 Ancestral Findings, LLC. Cawein, Madison, et. blue people of west virginia By | January 19, 2023 Top Chef 2021 Replay , 30 Day Weather Forecast For Parker, Az , Apn Number Lookup Los Angeles County , Annie Hinsche Today , How To Cover A Wire Wreath Frame , David Honeycutt Hamilton , Nicknames For Mairead , Tubuldu Instrument Of Palawan , Hotel Mumbai Survivors Baby , Hartford Police . Have you ever heard of the blue Fugates of Troublesome Creek? she asked the doctors. 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. Google Maps, Cowboy Up Bar, Bluefield, WV. When young people started moving away from the farms surrounding Troublesome Creek in the mid-20th century, they took their recessive blue genes with them. He tested first for abnormal hemoglobin, but the results were negative. Though West Virginia has had boom-and-bust cycles since, Census Bureau data shows it has lost population every year since 2012 and now has about 1.8 million residents. Martin and Elizabeth Fugates blue children multiplied in this natural isolation tank. Said to have originated in Hampshire County, West Virginia. 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. It was almost purple, his father recalls. The solution, oddly enough, was a commonly used dye called methylene blue. url('//www.incandina.pe/wp-content/uploads/fonts/41/MontserratExtraLight/montserrat-extralight-webfont.ttf') format('truetype'), But Cawein knew from earlier studies that the body has an alternative method of converting methemoglobin back to normal. 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 . You have the official bragging rights as being named the most redneck city in the entire state of West Virginia. Benjy was born in a maternity ward near Hazard, Kentucky and was rushed by ambulance to a medical clinic in Lexington to find help for his blue problem. 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. RAYLAND, Ohio (WTRF) A house fire in Rayland over the weekend has been deemed an arson fire by the State Fire Marshal's office. Even though the first stanza references the Shenandoah River and Blue Ridge Mountainstwo geological features that only skim the very eastern panhandle of the state and are not closely related with the statethe beauty and pride expressed in the song made it an immediate hit in West Virginia. Is there anything really wrong with being called a West Virginia redneck? The gene is still around today but has now become statistically insignificant and there are no serious medical problems associated with it. My grandmother Luna on my dads side was a blue Fugate. James Caudy, frontiersman and early settler of present day West Virginia. As the story goes, Martin Fugate, a French orphan, settled on the banks of eastern Kentucky's Troublesome Creek around 1820 to claim a land grant. 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. When they settled this country back then, there was no roads. So close! Eventually, the recessive gene began to disappear once coal mining and the railroad opened the community to outsiders. Eventually, Cawein gained their trust and began taking blood samples. THE town of Odd, West Virginia is a quiet, rural countryside, despite all the buzz surrounding the infamous inbred family, The Whittakers, who live within it. 9. The afflicted were embarrassed about their condition and adamant about talking to Cawein. A transfusion was being prepared when Benjys grandmother spoke up. Curiosity drove him to Hazard where he was introduced to a nurse, Ruth Pendergrass, who had met a "dark blue" woman. Tulane Breakout Room Reservation, 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. In the isolated hollows of rural Kentucky, they were known as the blue Fugates and the blue Combses. Cawein was determined to find a cause and possibly a solution to help this small group of isolated Appalachian people. They are known for being carriers of a genetic trait that led to the blood disorder methemoglobinemia, causing the skin to appear blue. Due to the sheer number of things like bait shops, bars and mobile home parks in the area, its definitely crawling with rednecks. Population: 6,306Walmart rank: 2ndMobile home parks: 5th in the stateBars per person: 5th in West Virginia. Some sites say 100%. 1 talking about this. Cawein drew lots of blood from the Ritchies and hurried back to his lab. Are Ferne Mccann's Parents Together, It like to scared me to death! This results in brown blood giving Caucasian patients a bluish hue to their skin. Theyre prominently featured in reality television. The Fugate family of Kentucky once lived in the isolated community of Troublesome Creek. The couple had eight children, including Luna. More than a cent. Population: 7,164Mobile home parks per capita: 2nd in West VirginiaBars per capita: 2nd in the stateWalmart rank: 3rd. Most lived to their 80s and 90s without serious illness associated with the skin discoloration. All lived in isolation from the world, bunched in log cabins up and down the hollows, and so it was only natural that a boy married the girl next door, even if she had the same last name. Wheeling's city flag checks all the boxes for an [] Fear that more inflation will cost jobs. @font-face { Jaculatorias A San Antonio De Padua, By the time a young hematologist from the University of Kentucky came down to Troublesome Creek in the 1960s to cure the blue people, Martin Fugates descendants had multiplied their recessive genes all over the Cumberland Plateau. Most of the Fugates lived long and healthy lives. Patrick and Rachel Ritchie, who lived in Hardburly, were also blue. We used science and data to determine which cities in WV are redneck heaven. [6], Descendants with the gene continued to live near Troublesome Creek and Ball Creek into the 20th century. Plus, we thought why not add in a few stereotypes? It is the color of oxygen-depleted blood seen in the blue veins just below the skin. He knew the same thing was happening in this secluded corner of Appalachia. Old color photographs of the family clearly show about half of the members to have a distinct cobalt blue skin color, while the other have regular white skin color. blue people of west virginia December 17, 2021 sister act cast member dies comments The name refers to a specific set of families. Finally, one day when the frustrated doctor was idling inside the Hazard clinic, Patrick and Rachel Ritchie walked in. Cawein advised giving the child methylene blue and not worrying about it. Cawein was determined to find a cause and possibly a solution to help this small group of isolated Appalachian people. Before Cawein ended his study of the blue people, he returned to the mountains to patch together the long and twisted journey of Martin Fugates recessive gene.

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