Fourth Generation

53. Charles Brantley AYCOCK⁹ was born on 1 November 1859 in Nahunta, Wayne County, North Carolina.^14,23 He received a degree in 1880 at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Orange County, North Carolina.²⁴ He was elected as Governor in 1900 in North Carolina.⁹ Charles died on 4 April 1912 at the age of 52. He was buried in 1912 at Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina. He was an attorney and elected official. "Aycock began the study of law with Dr. Kemp P. Battle during his Senior year at the University, completing the course under the direction and instruction of Mr. A. K. Smedes, a lawyer of marked ability and learning of the Goldsboro bar. He received his license from the Supreme Court at the January Term, 1881." (Connor & Poe: Life and Speeches of C.B. Aycock, p.44) Charles was named after Rev. Charles Brantley.¹⁴ Rev Brantley was "a Primitive Baptist minister for whom Benjamin and Serena felt strong affection." (Orr: C.B. Aycock, p.5) Known as the educational governor of North Carolina, Charles Brantley Aycock campaigned for Governor in 1900 on a platform of improving the public school system. Aycock received his education in eastern North Carolina and at the University of North Carolina. During his last year of college, he also read law, enabling him to open a law office in Goldsboro upon graduation. In 1892, he was appointed U. S. District Attorney for the eastern district and served in that role for six years. As Governor, he traveled around the state with the State Superintendent of Schools, Thomas F. Toon, to talk about his plans to improve the public schools. As a result mainly of their efforts and those of Charles D. McIver, the legislature increased its funding to the Department of Public Instruction, improved standards through consolidation of the training schools for Blacks, and established three colleges (Appalachian, Cullowhee, and East Carolina Teachers College). Most notable were the construction of 3,459 schoolhouses in an effort to expand the system of rural schools, and the addition of one month to the school term. Due to his successes in the educational arena, Governor Aycock traveled to other states to speak. While in Alabama in 1912, he was stricken and died while delivering one of these speeches to the Alabama Educational Association. He is buried in historic Oakwood Cemetery. (N.C. Dept. of Public Instruction) "The experiences of his family and community during the periods of Civil War and Reconstruction supplied him with lifelong attitudes of veneration for the people of the Confederacy, distrust of the North, and distaste for the Republican party. His father was a slave holder, and although Aycock assented to the idea of abolition, he never lost his conviction that the Negro race was inferior to the white race." (Orr: C.B. Aycock, p.3)

Charles Brantley AYCOCK and Alice Varina Davis WOODARD were married on 25 May 1881.²⁵ Alice Varina Davis WOODARD¹⁸, daughter of William WOODARD and Delphia ROUNDTREE, was born on 15 April 1861.²⁵ She died on 9 July 1889 at the age of 28.²⁶

Charles Brantley AYCOCK and Alice Varina Davis WOODARD had the following children:

Charles Brantley AYCOCK and Cora Lily WOODARD were married on 7 January 1891.²⁶ Cora Lily WOODARD²⁶, daughter of William WOODARD and Delphia ROUNDTREE, was born on 11 October 1868.²⁶ She died in 1940 at the age of 72. "She was described as resembling Varina in appearance, gentleness of manner, and devotion to domestic life." (Orr: C.B. Aycock, p.37)

Charles Brantley AYCOCK and Cora Lily WOODARD had the following children: