Madison Cawein began hearing rumors about the blue people when he went to work at the University of Kentuckys Lexington medical clinic in 1960. 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. This results in brown blood giving Caucasian patients a bluish hue to their skin. Blue human aren't possible. One of the girls, the Informant, was discussing an upcoming trip to visit her brother at West Virginia University. Tulane Breakout Room Reservation, Chapter 1: The Climate of Post-War America Chapter 2: West Virginia - The Violent Heritage Chapter 3: Political Maneuvering Chapter 4: The Creative Act of 1919 Chapter 5: Getting Organized PART II Chapter 6: The Mine Wars, 1919-1929 Chapter 7: Depression and Recovery, 1929-1939 Chapter 8: War Service, 1939-1949 Answer (1 of 3): Depends on what you mean by blue. Benjy was a pretty big item in the hospital, his mother says with a grin. Goodbye, Miss 4th of July. 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. But Cawein knew from earlier studies that the body has an alternative method of converting methemoglobin back to normal. But his first love, which he developed as an Army medical technician in World War II, was hematology. 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. "I started asking them questions: 'Do you have any relatives who are blue?' 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. New Martinsville is located in the northwestern part of the state, right on the Ohio state line. Once he had the enzyme deficiency isolated, methylene blue sprang to Caweins mind as the perfectly obvious antidote. The company's filing status is listed as Revoked (Failure To File Annual Report) and its File Number is 45369. 10. 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. In 2019, the novel The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michele Richardson, described a fictional version of the Fugate family during the Great Depression. Wiki/Midnightdreary The number of tobacco stores per capita (we call it the chew factor) is the highest in West Virginia here in Charles Town. Most of them old people went by that name the blue Fugates. If this conversion continued, all the bodys hemoglobin would eventually be rendered useless. Cawein got lucky when a brother and sister named Patrick and Rachel Ritchie walked into a Hazard County clinic. In the Inuit communities, scientists had pinpointed the problem, a deficiency of an enzyme that converted methemoglobin to hemoglobin. All Rights ReservedPrivacy Policy |Terms of Use, Baltimore, Chicago, and St. Louis, 1870 Census Index, North Carolina and South Carolina, 1870 Census Index, Virginia and West Virginia, 1870 Census Index, Margaret Christine Otis Baker: A Colonial Woman with an Incredible Story, Carter Braxton: The Signers of the Declaration of Independence, Josiah Bartlett: The Signers of the Declaration of Independence, Everything You Need to Know About the 1890 US Federal Census, The Real Truth Behind Coats of Arms and Family Crests, Curtis King: Unsung Heroes of the Civil War. Cherokee Indians were the main Native American group of the Southern Appalachian and Blue Ridge region, but there were also Iroquois, Powhatan, and Shawnee people.. Activating it requires adding to the blood a substance that acts as an electron donor. Fugates married other Fugates. Luna has been dead nearly 20 years now, but her widower survives. 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. His car gave out on the dirt road to Zachs house, and the doctor had to borrow a Jeep from a filling station. "But if you're marrying your cousin, it's one in eight. Patrick was all hunched down in the hall. 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. And a Walmart all to their own. Median Income. The methaemoglobinaemia condition, or met-H, reduces someones ability to carry oxygen in the blood, leaving it darker than the colour typically found in veins. 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. Bradley Cooper Parents, Using Yelp and Google Maps, this is the criteria we used: Note: For the sake of getting reliable numbers, we counted places within a citys border, as well as within a short driving distance. At West Virginia University in Morgantown, it . Google Maps. It seems as if this area is generally, more wealthy than the other cities on this list. 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. Benjy Stacy is one of the last of the blue Fugates. American family known for having blue skin, "Blue-skinned family baffled science for 150 years", "Fugates of Kentucky: Skin Bluer than Lake Louise", "Blue People Look for Genetic Connection to Kentucky Fugates", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Blue_Fugates&oldid=1141206898, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 23 February 2023, at 22:29. Legend has it that Martin himself may have had a blue tinge to his skin, but not the dark blue color of later Fugates. Different spellings of the surname sometimes include "Fugett" and "Fugitt". He tested first for abnormal hemoglobin, but the results were negative. Much of the mythology surrounding the creature is tied to the deadly 1967 collapse of the Silver Bridge, which spanned the Ohio River at Point Pleasant, West Virginia. While the substance isnt harmful, large amounts of it will tint any tissue that has blood flowing to it a blue color. Scott also concluded that the condition was inherited as a simple recessive trait. Plus, we thought why not add in a few stereotypes? One of the girls, the Informant, was discussing an upcoming trip to visit her brother at West Virginia University. And they married the people who lived closest to them, the Combses, Smiths, Ritchies, and Stacys. Rednecks are hailed as being great in our song lyrics. Bluefield State is committed to being the region's leading institution of higher education. Incredibly, Benjy had inherited a gene dating back over 162 years! 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. All them old fellers way back then was blue. Everyone around here knows about the blue Fugates, says Hilda Stacy who, at 26, looks more like a sister than a mother to her children. Archives of Internal Medicine, April, 1964.2. While the substance isn't harmful, large amounts of it will tint any tissue that has blood flowing to it a blue color. That was the pain of being blue in a world that is mostly shades of white to black. Well, according to the official bible of literature, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a redneck is: 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.. The defect can be cured completely by supplying the cofactor by pills (about . Methemoglobinemia is a rare hereditary blood disorder that results from excess levels of methomoglobin (metHb) in the blood. Cawein is no stranger to eccentricities of the body. url('//www.incandina.pe/wp-content/uploads/fonts/41/MontserratExtraLight/montserrat-extralight-webfont.woff') format('woff'), 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. "For the first time in their lives, they were pink. It has nothing to do with melanin, the amino acid that gives people darker skin tones. Jefferson County, Ohio house fire ruled arson; $5,000 reward. Its nothing.. Martin and Elizabeth had seven children, four of whom were "bright blue" according to Fugate family lore. Stumped, the doctor turned to the medical literature for a clue. He married a red-haired American named Elizabeth Smith with a very pale complexion. Before people knew what was going on they described the Fugates and others like them as looking: like anybody else, cept they had the blue color, Bluern hell, indigo blue, almost purple, bluish all over, dark as a bruise, and as blue a woman as I ever saw.. At the National Press Club on Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney noted that his maternal grandmother is descended from someone named Cheney, then quipped, So we had Cheneys on both sides of the familyand we dont even live in West 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.". 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. I'm going to assume that by blu. Sometimes they married first cousins. Finally, one day when the frustrated doctor was idling inside the Hazard clinic, Patrick and Rachel Ritchie walked in. 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. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. Genetic Causes In 2006 he became the longest-serving Senator in history, and in 2009 the longest-serving member of Congress in . The beautiful town of Berkeley Springs is one of the best places to visit in West Virginia. Tests for abnormal hemoglobin were negative. The clan kept multiplying. God Bless America. And a Walmart all to their own. font-family: 'MontserratExtraLight'; And at least in one famous case, a man turned his skin permanently blue from drinking too much colloidal silver supplements and rubbing colloidal silver cream on his skin (the condition is called argyria or silver poisoning). DynamicFrameworks - Elite ThemeForest Author. Well, according to the official bible of literature, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a redneck is: 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.. 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. 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. West Virginia Get facts and photos about the 35th state. James Caudy, frontiersman and early settler of present day West Virginia. Gods and Generals (2003) New Martinsville has the 2nd most places to buy guns, the 2nd most fishing/bait shops and several places to get chew. Elkins Journeez Bar, Elkins, WV. She was as blue a woman as I ever saw.. Blue People of West Virginia | . Blue Grass Riding Club Of West Virginia, Inc. is a West Virginia Domestic Profit Corporation filed on January 19, 1965. When Benjy was born with purple skin, his relatives told the perplexed doctors about his great grandmother Luna Fugate. All rights reserved. Cawein drew lots of blood from the Ritchies and hurried back to his lab. Stacy counts Fugate blood in his own veins. url('//www.incandina.pe/wp-content/uploads/fonts/40/MontserratExtraBold/montserrat-extrabold-webfont.ttf') format('truetype'), What he got from Martin Fugate was dark blue skin. the blue color was gone from their skin, the doctor said. Google Maps. Laurel Wheeler and family, Buena Vista, Rockbridge County, Virginia. One day, one of the older mountain men cornered the doctor. 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; Methemoglobinemia is a blood condition, not a skin condition. "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. "That's crazy.". 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 Benjy's birth that they would crowd around the baby and try to make him cry. It is the color of oxygen-depleted blood seen in the blue veins just below the skin. valley in the mountains in West Virginia with a barn and cows visible Stephanie Pittman 561 followers More information Blue People of West Virginia | . Plus, we thought why not add in a few stereotypes? The relation of diaphorase of human erythrocytes to inheritance of methemolglobinemia, Journal of Clinical Investigation, 39, 1960.3. Devil Anse Hatfield, patriarch of Hatfield clan of 19th-century Hatfield-McCoy feud. RoadSnacks is reader-supported. When Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, the portion now known as West Virginia broke off to form its own state. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. But by 3 years old and . Its 97% white, very blue collar, and there are lots of places to get guns, ammo and chew. Upon further research, I saw that the original story was based on a specific family that was said to be suffering from blue-tinted skin. The Fugate family intermarried with a neighbouring family for generations, which led to a relatively pure gene pool, often including the met-H gene. They were delighted., They changed colors! Not myth or legend; The Blue People of Kentucky were an isolated enclave of Appalachian people who lived with an embarrassing skin discoloration until a young hematologist took notice and found a solution. 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. The blue people were a secret to the outside world until two siblings went to a local hematologist in the midst of the night. It was real bad in her, Alva Stacy, the boys father, explained. [5] He treated the family with methylene blue, which eased their symptoms and reduced the blue coloring of their skin. 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. Where is this area located in eastern KY? @font-face { 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 . Exhibitions in the McGee Gallery bring ideas and objects together in new ways, highlighting the breadth and depth of the Art Museum's permanent collection: In/Humanity: Combat and War in Art, an . Google Maps. Everyone around here knows about the blue Fugates, says Hilda Stacy who, at 26, looks more like a sister than a mother to her children. src: url('//www.incandina.pe/wp-content/uploads/fonts/41/MontserratExtraLight/montserrat-extralight-webfont.eot?#iefix') format('embedded-opentype'), Cawein, Madison, et. Many wonder why eggs are so diverse. Chickens are genetically complex. By 1850, approximately half of Kanawha County's slaves worked in the salt industrymany mined coal to fuel the furnaces. "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. The trait is recessive and when homozygous gives affected individuals, a distinctly blue color to their skin and chronic weakness. Fairmont is a short truck drive down from Morgantown. Laughing, the Informant launched into a story of the "West Virginia Blue People", a story about a genetic condition the resulted from intermarriage. Steelworkers Damion Elkins, 50, right, and Edward Clonch, 43, left, in Huntington West Virginia. His two room log cabin sits in the middle of Laurel Fork Hollow. Stumped, the doctor turned to the medical literature for a clue. He was a French orphan who knew nothing of his lineage. When you look at the numbers, its clear that most of Moundsville is a buncha fun-lovin rednecks. Population: 7,164 Mobile home parks per capita: 2nd in West Virginia Bars per capita: 2nd in the state Walmart rank: 3rd Elkins is way out in the middle of nowhere south of Morgantown, at the base of the Appalachians. 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. Bradley Cooper Parents, Dora Bryan House Chimes, 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. 97 % white, very blue collar, and Edward Clonch, 43 left!, a Graham Holdings company, large amounts of it will tint any blue people of west virginia. 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