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Augustus Vignos was a major in the Union Army during the Civil War, Postmaster of Canton, Ohio, and president of the American Mine Door Company.
He was born Sept 16, 1838 in Louisville, Ohio to Joseph Vignos and Theresa Frantz, immigrants from eastern France. [1] He learned to play the fife and joined the 19th Ohio Volunteer Infantry as a musician on Sept 7, 1861. After the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862 he contracted typhoid fever and returned to Louisville where he worked as a recruiter, enlisting 70 volunteers. He was then made captain of Company H of the 107th Ohio Volunteer Infantry regiment under Colonel Meyers. The regiment joined the 11th Corps of the Army of the Potomac and saw action in the Battle of Chancellorsville. From there the army moved to Gettysburg, where Vignos lost his right arm on the first day of battle at Barlows Knoll. He again returned to Louisville to convalesce, and in October rejoined his unit. On Nov 27, 1863 he was promoted to Major and placed in charge of Fort Clinch, Florida. For health reasons, he left the Army in September 1864 when his 3-year term was completed.
In 1865 Vignos married Phoebe Devinny, great-granddaughter of Revolutionary War veteran Henry Platt, and they had eight children.[2] He soon became active in Republican politics and campaigned for Major William McKinley who was running for county prosecutor, and then in 1876, for Congress. His efforts made McKinley the first Republican ever to carry Nimishillen Township. With the support of McKinley, he was named Postmaster of Canton by Rutherford Hayes in 1877.[3] He held the post until 1886, during which time he hired Canton's first mail carriers.
Upon leaving the Post Office he founded the Novelty Cutlery Company with Alvin Hurford, which employed 60 people.
The knives offered eight types of tempered steel blades and had transparent handles with a custom photograph on one side and a message or address on the other. Vignos became quite a successful businessman and eventually was president of six companies, including the Canton Electric Sign Co. This allowed him to travel extensively, including a trip to the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris, where he served as a juror for cutlery.
In 1905 he bought an interest in the Canton Mine Door Company, eventually purchasing the entire business by 1907 and renaming it the American Mine Door Company. This automatic coal mine door had been invented by Newton Bowman in 1895, and Bowman became superintendent of the company.[4] [4] Endorsed by the United Mine Workers, the doors were safer and trapper boys were freed to attend school. The company also produced switch throwers, rock dusters, and track cleaning machines. It sold over 7,000 mine doors by 1950, including exports to South Africa, Turkey, and undersea doors to Nova Scotia. In 1916 Vignos retired from the company, leaving his son Charles in charge, and spending winters in Los Angeles.
Vignos was very active in veterans affairs and served as an aide-de-camp for the Ohio Grand Army of the Republic. He returned to Gettysburg in September 1887 for the dedication of the memorial marker on Barlow’s Knoll for the Ohio 107th.
He died in Los Angeles at the age of 87 and is buried in Canton, Ohio.
- ^ Heald, Edward T. (1949). The Stark County Story, v.1. Canton, Ohio: Stark County Historical Society. p. 515.
- ^ Perrin, William H. "The History of Stark County". Baskin & Battey. p. 639-640. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
- ^ Heald, Edward T. (1950). The Stark County Story, v.2. Canton, Ohio: Stark County Historical Society. pp. 89–90, 305.
- ^ Heald, Edward T. (1952). The Stark County Story, v.3. Canton, Ohio: Stark County Historical Society. pp. 77–79.