But Cawein knew from earlier studies that the body has an alternative method of converting methemoglobin back to normal. 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. type to search . Come on, Grafton rednecks. It has nothing to do with melanin, the amino acid that gives people darker skin tones. Jaculatorias A San Antonio De Padua, Patrick and Rachel Ritchie, who lived in Hardburly, were also blue. Luna was bluish all over. Luna Stacy possessed the good health common to the blue people, bearing at least 13 children before she died at 84. No. font-family: 'MontserratExtraBold'; The doctor was fascinated, as the children were "relatively" healthy, except their skin tone and a few other symptoms from the gene passing. She looked like she was having a heart attack. Eventually, the recessive gene began to disappear once coal mining and the railroad opened the community to outsiders. Levy married a Ritchie girl and bought 200 acres of rolling land along Ball Creek. You have the most bars and trailer parks per capita in the state, and your high school graduation rate is 70%. 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. If enough blood is "infected" with this faulty type of hemoglobin, it changes from red to an almost purple-ish dark blue. If the blue people did have methemoglobinemia, the next step was to find out the cause. Population: 10,486Mobile home parks in area: 3rd in WVBars per capita: 3rdGun stores per capita: 5th in West Virginia. Excise tax on bottled soft drinks, syrups and dry mixtures; disposition thereof. url('//www.incandina.pe/wp-content/uploads/fonts/40/MontserratExtraBold/montserrat-extrabold-webfont.woff') format('woff'), Regardless, this place might be the whitest, redneckest of them all. RoadSnacks is reader-supported. We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. So I knew we had the defect defined.. One of the girls, the "Informant", was discussing an upcoming trip to visit her brother at West Virginia University. It was almost purple, his father recalls. 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.. He was a French orphan who knew nothing of his lineage. One of em I remember seeing him when I was just a boy Blue Anze, they called him. 1 talking about this. Ask the Explainer. Population: 5,191High school graduation rate: 70%Walmart rank: 4thDive bars and mobile home parks: 7th. 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. She and her husband Alva have a strong sense of family. Elizabeth Smith, apparently, was as pale-skinned as the mountain laurel that blooms every spring around the creek hollows. In his research, he found a 1960 article by E. M. Scott that was reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Houses belonging to people that lived in the valley were mostly torn down. The arrival of enslaved Africans in the area dates back to the 16th century. It was hard to get out, so they intermarried, says Dennis Stacy, a 51-year-old coal miner and amateur genealogist who has filled a loose-leaf notebook with the laboriously traced blood lines of several local families. 3 of 10 isnt good enough; think of how high you wouldve finished on this list had more of you ditched class to head to the hills on Friday mornings like a lot of your friends. Median Income. Exaggeration-prone outsiders. 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 was a sister to one of the Fugate women. About this same time, another of the blue Combses, named Luke, had taken his sick wife up to the clinic at Lexington. It is almost certain that Martin was a descendant of the Fugate family of Russell County, Virginia and probably of French origin. valley in the mountains in West Virginia with a barn and cows visible Stephanie Pittman 561 followers More information Blue People of West Virginia | . Theyre known simply as the blue people in the hills and hollows around Troublesome and Ball Creeks. Cawein drew lots of blood from the Ritchies and hurried back to his lab. A transfusion was being prepared when Benjys grandmother spoke up. "The precipitous upland nature of the terrain makes naturally for three things: (1) poor communications; (2) fierce sectionalism; (3 . by Cathy TrostScience82, November, 1982. The doctors finally came to the conclusion that Benjys color was due to blood inherited from generations back.. Cawein packed his black bag and rounded up Nurse Pendergrass for the big event. Yep, thats right. Stacy recalls that his father-inlaw, Levy Fugate, was part of the family that showed blue. One came from a blue Flugate whod joined the Army and been sent to Panama, where his son was born bright blue. In the isolated hollows of rural Kentucky, they were known as the blue Fugates and the blue Combses. There was a Zachariah Fugate who was married to a Mary Smith; both carried the gene which resulted in blue children. More than a cent. Legend has it that Martin himself may have had a blue tinge to his skin, but not the dark blue color of later Fugates. Come on, Grafton rednecks. 9. They have the 2nd most bars and the 2nd most trailer/mobile home parks per capita in the state. [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. The answer is simple. 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. No mention of his skin color is made in the early histories of the area, but family lore has it that Martin himself was blue. I looked at other enzymes and nothing was wrong with them. He was a French orphan who knew nothing of his lineage. 1:52. So, hold our beers and watch this. Read on below to see where your town ranked. It would be hard to doubt this gracious man except that you cant find another person who knew Luna who doesnt remember her as being blue. The beautiful town of Berkeley Springs is one of the best places to visit in West Virginia. Gods and Generals (2003) Legend has it that Martin himself may have had a blue tinge to his skin, but not the dark blue color of later Fugates. Cawein was determined to find a cause and possibly a solution to help this small group of isolated Appalachian people. Scott, E.M. Direct report to President, directed the development and execution of . There are very few drives in West Virginia that . Bannon's emotions overflowed over Rep. Mike Gallagher bashing Wisconsin's 1950's commie witch-hunter Joseph McCarthy. It involves numerous techniques and procedures that can improve the appearance of one's teeth, making them more brilliant, white, and beautiful. One could inherit the gene, not get the blood disorder, but pass the gene on to a child. 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. Stacy courted her, married her, and moved over from Troublesome Creek to make a living in timber on her daddys land. Different spellings of the surname sometimes include "Fugett" and "Fugitt". When you click through real estate links on our site, we earn an affiliate commission. Elizabeth had pale white skin, almost translucent. It is the color of oxygen-depleted blood seen in the blue veins just below the skin. Finding it ridiculous herself, the Informant told me that she still enjoys being a part of the joke. Nancy Hanks, mother of Abraham Lincoln; distant cousin of Tom Hanks. A transfusion was being prepared when Benjys grandmother spoke up. Cawein advised giving the child methylene blue and not worrying about it. She has lived in the primitive dwelling without running water or electricity on the slopes of Dead Fall Mountain her entire life. As a result of a coincidental meeting of recessive genes . While in the hills, Cawein drove over to see Zach (Big Man) Fugate, the 76-year-old patriarch of the clan on Troublesome Creek. They lived in isolation and married the girl next door, even if they had the same last name, and consequently passed the gene on to many generations. They are known for being carriers of a genetic trait that led to the blood disorder methemoglobinemia, causing the skin to appear blue. 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 family was first discovered in 1958 when one of the blue men, Luke Combs, who was a descendant of another branch of the Fugate family, took his white wife to the University of Kentucky Hospital and doctors paid more attention to him than his wife. Some say 99%. She was one of the "blue" Combses who lived up on Ball Creek and was a sister to one of the Fugate women; her brother, Luke, was also blue. And when you look at the data, its clear this is a really solid place for a redneck to make home. When Benjy was born with purple skin, his relatives told the perplexed doctors about his great grandmother Luna Fugate. The clinic doctors only saw her a few times in her life and never for anything serious. 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. A new playing surface, FieldTurf Revolution 2.5, was installed in 2016, giving West Virginia one of the country's safest and most . Martin and Elizabeth set up housekeeping on the banks of Troublesome and began a family. Had you guys just ditched school even more, you might have won this whole thing. It's a vote cast not just out of allegiance. 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. 1: Mothman The granddaddy of all West Virginia monsters, Mothman has gained worldwide notoriety. The trait is recessive and when homozygous gives affected individuals, a distinctly blue color to their skin and chronic weakness. They were delighted., They changed colors! remembered Pendergrass. Eventually, Cawein gained their trust and began taking blood samples. 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. Martin married a red-headed American woman named Elizabeth Smith and the two set up a homestead on the banks of Troublesome Creek near Hazard County, Kentucky. the blue color was gone from their skin, the doctor said. 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. valley in the mountains in West Virginia with a barn and cows visible West Virginia Mountains Fall Foliage The Mountain Spruce Fall Colors Beautiful Pictures On a hypothesis, he gave a substance called methylene blue to family members who were willing to take it. 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 And they married the people who lived closest to them, the Combses, Smiths, Ritchies, and Stacys. 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. 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. blue people of west virginiaspot vs pinfish. "A white person who lives in a small town or in the country especially in the southern U.S., who typically has a working-class job, and who is seen by others as being uneducated and having opinions and attitudes that are offensive." Plus, we thought why not add in a few stereotypes? Theres lots of trucks in Grafton, WV. Within a few minutes. "Methomoglobin is an oxidized form of hemoglobin that has a decreased affinity for oxygen, resulting in a reduced ability to release oxygen to tissues." This information supplied by John Graves whose uncle was the father of the child. Many substances do this, but Cawein chose methylene blue because it had been used successfully and safely in other cases and because it acts quickly. Benjy was a pretty big item in the hospital, his mother says with a grin. @font-face { By Jamie Kiffel-Alcheh Fast Facts Nickname: The Mountain State Statehood: 1863; 35th state Population (as of July, 2016): 1,831,102. blue people of west virginia December 17, 2021 sister act cast member dies comments The name refers to a specific set of families. They werent sick; it was just the way they look. They went over to Patrick and Rachel Ritchies house and injected each of them with 100 milligrams of methylene blue. For the first time in their lives, they were pink. When you look at the numbers, its clear that most of Moundsville is a buncha fun-lovin rednecks. New Martinsville is located in the northwestern part of the state, right on the Ohio state line. The famous painting of the blue Fugates is not based on an actual family photograph, but was a composite illustration created by artist Walt Spitzmiller for a 1982 magazine article. Have you ever heard of the blue Fugates of Troublesome Creek? she asked the doctors. 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. It was really something exciting to see.. For the first time in their lives, they were pink. New Martinsville has the 2nd most places to buy guns, the 2nd most fishing/bait shops and several places to get chew. 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. Hilda Stacy (nee Godsey) is fiercely protective of her son. 11. Only adopted cousins are allowed to marry, while in Vermont, Virginia, and many other states, first cousins can tie the knot. Updated: Feb 27, 2023 / 06:18 PM EST. I'm going to assume that by blu. "Location: Primarily centered in Barbour and Taylor counties, West Virginia. Most of them old people went by that name the blue Fugates. 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. '"He was almost purple,"' his father, Alva Stacy, recalls." Population: 5,373Tobacco stores per capita: 5th in West VirginiaGun stores per capita: 2ndFishing/bait shops per capita: 2nd. See the video below. You couldve done even better than that. He helped isolate an antidote for cholera, and he did some of the early work on L-dopa, the drug for Parkinsons disease. Plus, we thought why not add in a few stereotypes? Cawein needed fresh blood to do an enzyme assay. They wouldnt come into the waiting room. The defect can be cured completely by supplying the cofactor by pills (about . So you know theres some good fishin there. If enough blood is "infected" with this faulty type of hemoglobin, it changes from red to an almost purple-ish dark blue. 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. If the blue people did have methemoglobinemia, the next step was to find out the cause. One relative describes her as blue all over, and another calls Luna the bluest woman I ever saw.. Cawein drew lots of blood from the Ritchies and hurried back to his lab. 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. As scientists discovered in the 1960s, the mutation that causes the Smurf-like skin is carried by a recessive gene, and it takes two people with that same gene to produce a blue child. 10. Published. 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. Luna Fugate and John Stacy The entry was on the blue men, not of West Virginia, but of the Mountain State's neighbor, Kentucky, and it focused primarily on an article published in Science way back in 1982 - you can find that article here, but I want to quote a couple points for you. Trump's leading MAGA-loving insurrectionist Steve Bannon got himself so worked up this week he dropped an f-bomb. "If you took any random person in the population, maybe one in 100,000 would carry this gene, if that many," says Ricki Lewis, a science writer and author of the textbook "Human Genetics: Concepts and Applications," now in its 13th edition. They were like any other 1800s family except theyliked inbreeding. Grafton has the highest percentage of its population that didnt finish high school. The antidote worked quickly but patients were required to take daily doses as it passed quickly through the urine. Cawein eventually found a small population of people in the back woods of Appalachia, many with a blue skin disorder. 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. That five-star symbol is the same as the one on the Friendly City flagwhich is drawing approval well outside of West Virginia. In 2021, the novel Blue-Skinned Gods by S. J. Sindu references a family from Kentucky with methemoglobinemia but does not use the surname Fugate. Neighboring Virginia has more than 200 per square mile. So close! He served as Democratic Senate Leader from 1977 to 1989. The Fugate family intermarried with a neighbouring family for generations, which led to a relatively pure gene pool, often including the met-H gene. Mary Fugate said that the gene is very dominant in the Smith line but there is still no concrete answers as to what couple started the shades of blue people. Which means lots of weekend warriors probably live here; its the families that have boats and who book nice family hunting trips. Said to have originated in Hampshire County, West Virginia. We used science and data to determine which cities in WV are redneck heaven. Goodbye, Miss 4th of July. Blood cells always looked so beautiful to me, he says. The last known "blue" Fugate descendant was born in 1975. Lunas father, Levy Fugate, was one of Zachariah Fugates sons. Cancel any time, no strings attached. When you look at the numbers, its clear that most of Moundsville is a buncha fun-lovin rednecks. In normal people hemoglobin is converted to methemoglobin at a very slow rate. Martin and Elizabeth had seven children, four of whom were "bright blue" according to Fugate family lore. 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. 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. Days of testing provided no answers; but then Benjy's grandmother told the doctor a story about the "blue" Fugates. The mountain range is located in the eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. 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. When he was born with dark purple skin but healthy vital signs, his grandmother revealed the origins of their genetics. In 2006 he became the longest-serving Senator in history, and in 2009 the longest-serving member of Congress in . Between 1880 and 1920, southern West Virginia's population grew from 93,000 to 446,000, due almost entirely to the coal industry. Jaculatorias A San Antonio De Padua, Its 97% white, very blue collar, and there are lots of places to get guns, ammo and chew. It began whenMartin Fugate, aFrench orphan, settled on the banks of eastern Kentuckys Troublesome Creek to claim a land grant in the early 19th century. Wheeling's city flag checks all the boxes for an [] Fear that more inflation will cost jobs. For some, though, there was a pain not seen in lab tests. 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 . One of the supermarket tabloids once sent a reporter to find out about the blue people, and she was distressed with his preoccupation with intermarriages. He tested first for abnormal hemoglobin, but the results were negative. As a result, four of their seven children exhibited blue skin, and continued reproduction within the limited local gene pool ensured that many descendants of the Fugates were born with met-H.[3][4][5], 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. 15,898 100 A Cinephile's Guide to Biographical Films. The Blue Fugates have essentially now gone from reality to legend. One came from a blue Flugate whod joined the Army and been sent to Panama, where his son was born bright blue. Stumped, the doctor turned to the medical literature for a clue. The only thing Stacy cant or wont remember is that his wife Luna was blue.
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