A Book, a Cousin and Kentucky
Have you ever read a book that just resonated with you? As a retired librarian with roots in Kentucky, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson was one of those books for me. I was enthralled with the Pack Horse Library Project which was part of the Works Progress Administration program in the 1930s and1940s, though the first Pack Horse Library was created in 1913 (Pack Horse Library Project).
My philosophy totally aligns with the concept that finding the right book for the right person is a “calling.” Reading can truly change lives. “People who lived in rural, mostly inaccessible areas wanted to become more literate, seeing education as a way to escape poverty (Pack Horse Library Project).”
But this book is about much more than the Pack Horse Libraries; it also introduced me to the “Blue people of Kentucky.” This aroused my curiosity so I began to do a little research. I decided to read about this anomaly and discovered that this is an absolutely real phenomenon called methemoglobinemia.
The setting of the book is the area round Troublesome Creek, Kentucky which is a real location. At this point I looked at my family tree to see what part of Kentucky my ancestors were from. To my surprise, I found ancestors in Perry and Breathitt Counties including Troublesome Creek, Hazard, Buckhorn, and Lost Creek.
Life in the hollows of Kentucky was difficult. The land, while beautiful, was harsh. The isolation was often debilitating. Before the railroad came in 1912 in response to mining in the area, there were no real roads and the area was mostly uninhabited with only a few families in the area including the Fugates, Smiths, Stacys, Ritchies and Combs. People married those who lived nearby. Because of the remoteness and desolation, this meant that it was very common for cousins to marry cousins.
Many members of this remote community happened to be carriers of the recessive gene for methemoglobinemia which meant that those with this affliction were missing an enzyme. If a person inherited this specific gene from both parents, they were born blue. While their peculiar color might appear to be abnormal, they were perfectly healthy and often lived to be in their 80s and 90s.
Imagine my astonishment when I accidentally discovered a DNA match on My Heritage to Cousin_____ Fugate who is a distant relative to the “Blue Fugates,” the most famous of the blue Kentucky families. Cousin _____ Fugate and I are 5th cousins who share 4th great grandparents, Jeremiah Smith (1797-1853) and Elizabeth Jones (1797-1853) from Kentucky. My 3rd great grandmother, Sarah, was the sister of his 3rd great grandfather, Huston. (Jeremiah and Elizabeth had 10 children. )
Cousin _____ Fugate’s connection to the “Blue Fugates” is not quite as linear. In just a few generations there are lots and lots of Fugate men with the same first name. The most common Fugate names were Martin, Benjamin, Zachariah, Levi, and Henley. It’s often very difficult to distinguish who is who. While Cousin _____ Fugate is related to the “Blue Fugates,” his direct line is descended from Benjamin Fugate (1755-1838), his son Henley, and his son Shadrock. (Benjamin had at least five sons and at least 27 grandsons.)
While many people in the Troublesome Creek area of Kentucky inherited the “blue gene,” the most famous were Martin Fugate and Elizabeth Smith; they had seven children, four who were born blue.
Alas, along with fame came rumor especially when the people involved abhorred notoriety. According to folklore, Martin Fugate was a French orphan who received a land grant in Kentucky and married Elizabeth Smith around 1820. This story has been repeated over and over in various articles and journals. I searched and searched but found no documentation that Martin Fugate was a French orphan and there were no sources attached to any of these various articles. (The surname Fugate is possibly French in origin from the Alsace-Lorraine region.) In fact, Nancy Coleman responded on February 11, 2016 to an entry about the Blue People of Kentucky on Owlcation, an online education platform. She stated, “According to my Fugate family genealogy, Martin was not a French orphan but a 4th generation Fugate and was my great, great, great, great grandfather. The Fugates in this area originally came from Russell County, Virginia (Lefler).”
The last known descendant of the “Blue Fugates” to be born blue was Benjamin Stacy in 1975. “His skin was described ‘as Blue as Lake Louise’. Doctors were so concerned they rushed him to the University of Kentucky Medical Center (Blue Fugates).” As the doctors were preparing to give baby Benjy a blood transfusion, relatives told medical personnel that Benjy’s great grandmother was also blue.
Luna Fugate Stacy lived a perfectly normal life even though she was blue. She married John Stacy and they had 13 children. She lived a long life and died at 84. While her great grandson was born blue, his color faded as time went by.
One of the joys of genealogy research is the discovery of unanticipated stories and connections. Geography and history help define who our ancestors were. Inspiration and information can come when you least expect it.
Sources
“Blue Fugates.” ABC News, abcnews.go.com/Health/blue-skinned-people-genetic-connection-kentucky-fugates/story?id=15871929. Accessed 14 May 2023.
Clark, Nancy. “The Blue People of Troublesome Creek.” Science Classroom Teacher Resources, 22 Dec. 2020, www.nclark.net/BluePeopleofTroublesomeCreek.
Lefler, Leah. “Blue People of Kentucky: Why the Fugate Family Had Blue Skin.” Owlcation, 19 July 2022, owlcation.com/humanities/Blue-People-in-Kentucky-A-True-Story-of-a-Family-with-Blue-Skin.
“Pack Horse Library Project.” Wikipedia, 27 Apr. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pack_Horse_Library_Project.
People, Kentucky Blue. “Pedigree of Hereditary Methemoglobiemia.” Kentuckybluepeople, 7 Dec. 2011, kentuckybluepeople.wordpress.com/.
Potter, Annette. “Benjamin Fugate and Hannah Devers.” Potter Family, yeahpot.com/fugate/benjamin1755.html. Accessed 14 May 2023.
Quinn, Shannon. “The Fugate Family of Kentucky Had Blue Skin for Generations.” History Collection, 1 Apr. 2022, historycollection.com/the-fugate-family-of-kentucky-had-blue-skin-for-generations/3/.
Richardson, Kim Michele. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek: A Novel. Sourcebooks Landmark, 2019.
Silverstein, Shel. “Masks.” Behance, 14 Jan. 2014, www.behance.net/gallery/13725445/Masks.
Trost, Cathy. “The Story of an Appalachian Malady, an Inquisitive Doctor, and a Paradoxical Cure.” University of Indiana, Nov. 1982.