One came from a blue Flugate whod joined the Army and been sent to Panama, where his son was born bright blue. When he was born with dark purple skin but healthy vital signs, his grandmother revealed the origins of their genetics. "I started asking them questions: 'Do you have any relatives who are blue?' Having blue children did not concern them. Our skimmable newsletter is delivered to your inbox each week, giving you 5 things you need to read and get smarter. The range of blue that could express itself in the blue Fugates ranged from light blue to dark blue like a blueberry, with even darker blue on the lips and fingernail beds. 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. Inbreeding in eastern Kentucky has been turning offspring blue since the early 1880s. 1:52. There are still blue people around today, but some of them developed their blueness from ingesting colloidal silver. The ZTF scans the entire Northern sky . Other people in the region knew the family well, and most were related to them, so seeing blue people and marrying them did not seem unusual to the locals. You may now brag to your friends and share this endlessly on your Facebook walls. They were really embarrassed about being blue, he said. Have you ever heard the song, Blue Moon of Kentucky? Its pretty well-known and popular. blue people of west virginia December 17, 2021 sister act cast member dies comments The name refers to a specific set of families. For more than a century, these Appalachian families passed along an exceedingly rare genetic blood condition that turned their skin a disarming shade of blue. Sometimes they married first cousins. The distinct gold-and-blue color scheme and Flying WV logo we've come to adore did not exist at that point. Upon discovering the blue members of the Fugate family were perfectly healthy in every other way, Cawein decided to try some experiments to see if the blue color could be treated. Cawein needed fresh blood to do an enzyme assay. Major Occupational Groups in West Virginia ( Note --clicking a link will scroll the page to the occupational group): 00-0000 All Occupations 11-0000 Management Occupations 13-0000 Business and Financial Operations Occupations 15-0000 Computer and Mathematical Occupations 17-0000 Architecture and Engineering Occupations Due to all this inbreeding, there were a lot of blue people running around the backwoods of Kentucky. Its blue, and their people have always had blue skin because of all the intermarrying and incest. She was as blue a woman as I ever saw.. He was born in the 1970s in a maternity ward of Hazard, Kentucky. They are known for being carriers of a genetic trait that led to the blood disorder methemoglobinemia, causing the skin to appear blue. Theyre prominently featured in reality television. When asked ahout it, he shakes his head and stares steadfastly ahead. History Timeline of the Native Indians of West Virginia. This article is an opinion based on facts and is meant as info-tainment. A transfusion was being prepared when Benjys grandmother spoke up. Most lived to their 80s and 90s without serious illness associated with the skin discoloration. I couldnt tell you what caused it.. One day, one of the older mountain men cornered the doctor. By 1850, approximately half of Kanawha County's slaves worked in the salt industrymany mined coal to fuel the furnaces. type to search . al. Cawein drew lots of blood from the Ritchies and hurried back to his lab. 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. Written family records do not indicate Martin's skin color, but family legend says he was blue. his wife happened to be a carrier for the gene, so in turn about half of their children were blue. If theyd immigrated to other areas, even other areas of Kentucky, they likely would have married non-relatives, and the condition would have faded out of the family long before it did. The boy inherited his fathers lankiness and his mothers slightly nasal way of speaking. But Cawein knew from earlier studies that the body has an alternative method of converting methemoglobin back to normal. In the isolated hollows of rural Kentucky, they were known as the blue Fugates and the blue Combses. Population: 5,191High school graduation rate: 70%Walmart rank: 4thDive bars and mobile home parks: 7th. Blow your mind. 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. What neither she nor Martin could have known is that they both carried the recessive gene for a rare hereditary blood disorder called methemoglobinemia. Archives of Internal Medicine, April, 1964.2. Woodburn Hall at West Virginia University in Morgantown (old gold and blue are the official University colors); photo by Swimmerguy269 on Wikipedia (use permitted with attribution / share alike). "There is a clan of partly-colored people in Barbour County often called Guineas, under the erroneous presumption that they are Guinea negroes," observed WV historian Hu Maxwell in the 1890s. Films That People Feel Guilty for Not Seeing. Is there anything really wrong with being called a West Virginia redneck? These people arent related to the Fugates: Also fake. 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. Methemoglobinemia can also be caused by reactions to certain topical pain relievers like benzocaine and xylocaine. The inbreeding caused the recessive gene to appear in both parents. Cawein packed his black bag and rounded up Nurse Pendergrass for the big event. Apparently, it shows more easily when theyre cold!. Generations later, a descendant of Martin Fugate, Benjy Stacy, would be born "blue". 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. The antidote worked quickly but patients were required to take daily doses as it passed quickly through the urine. Eventually, Cawein gained their trust and began taking blood samples. Little Blue Run in Chester West Virginia is gone 8/8/2004: The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes about Little Blue Run: Dangerous disposal, by Alyson Walls . The reasons for this almost have to do entirely with coal. Google Maps, Cowboy Up Bar, Bluefield, WV. Cawein and his colleagues published their research on hereditary diaphorase deficiency in the Archives of Internal Medicine (April, 1964) in 1964. So, hold our beers and watch this. Elkins Journeez Bar, Elkins, WV. Dennis 4 Comments. All he needed was a substance that could "donate" a free electron to the methemoglobin, allowing it to bond with oxygen. Chasing Chains, LLC. Additional comment actions. 20 Fine Arts Drive, Morgantown, WV 26506. https://artmuseum.wvu.edu. The 2010 survey revealed that there were 1,852,994 people living in West Virginia, which represented a modest rise of just 2.5% on the numbers declared at the 2000 census. Appearance: Blue grosbeaks are medium birds about 8 long, large, bright blue, with large silver bills, and chestnut wingbars. You could tell how much it bothered them to be blue.. But by 3 years old and . Blue People of West Virginia | . New Martinsville is located in the northwestern part of the state, right on the Ohio state line. Patrick and Rachel Ritchie, who lived in Hardburly, were also blue. Population: 5,626High school graduation rate: 72%Gun stores per capita: 5th in WVFishing/bait per capita: 3rd in the state. Dunlaps Gun & Pawn, Hurricane, WV. Book is out of print, borrowed from Special Collections at the St. Louis County Library, St. Louis, MO. Add to calendar. Elizabeth Smith, apparently, was as pale-skinned as the mountain laurel that blooms every spring around the creek hollows. One could inherit the gene, not get the blood disorder, but pass the gene on to a child. This publication also contains information on state and federal agencies; postal information; the Constitutions of the United States and West Virginia; and, considerable information on counties, municipalities and various organizations. If this conversion continued, all the bodys hemoglobin would eventually be rendered useless. Cancel any time, no strings attached. He was involved as a law enforcement officer in the Hatfield-McCoy Feud, the West Virginia Mine Wars and the destruction of moonshine stills. 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. 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. It is the color of oxygen-depleted blood seen in the blue veins just below the skin. Dating back to the early 1800s, an isolated family in eastern Kentucky - who can trace their roots back to a French orphan - started producing children who were blue. 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. Google Maps. The odds against it were incalculable, but Martin Fugate managed to find and marry a woman who carried the same recessive gene. He injected the Ritchie siblings with 100 milligrams of the blue dye and didn't have to wait long to see results. Just like the Alaskans, their blood had accumulated so much of the blue molecule that it over- whelmed the red of normal hcmoglobin that shows through as pink in the skin of most Caucasians. yes, saw that years ago, colloidal silver, damn asshole medias, just state facts, you can prove., thanks for this honest reply. The mystery behind the astonishing picture of the Fugates, which has been baffling people for years, appears to have finally been solved. by Cathy TrostScience82, November, 1982. Patrick was all hunched down in the hall. Embarrassed by their bluish hue, the families retreated even further from society, which only exacerbated the problem. During the same time period, missionaries reported pervasive ignorance and poverty, with large families living together in ramshackle cabins. Population: 9,277High school graduation rate 73%Chew factor: 3Gun stores: 5th. For the first time in their lives, they were pink. You couldve done even better than that. Steelworkers Damion Elkins, 50, right, and Edward Clonch, 43, left, in Huntington West Virginia. Bessie had an iron pot of clothes boiling in her front yard, but she graciously allowed the doctor to draw some of her blood. "That's crazy.". This results in brown blood giving Caucasian patients a bluish hue to their skin. 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