COBB COUNTY, GA - OBIT Aycock, Robert ***************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm *********************** This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Mary Lou Wardlaw ref: The Italy News Herald, No. 27, Italy, Ellis County, TX, Friday, July 17, 1936 "First Italy Postmaster Still Living Here: ROBERT AYCOCK, Founder of Italy in 1879 - Still Active "Born near Marietta, Georgia, on December 20, 1850, ROBERT AYCOCK came to Ellis County in 1871 with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. JOHN BRADFORD AYCOCK. In 1879 ROBERT AYCOCK and his brother, T. J. AYCOCK, built the first building in what is now the town of Italy and opened a general mercantile business. A short time after opening the store a post office was established and ROBERT AYCOCK was appointed the first post master, a position he held for 19 years. "MR. AYCOCK was married in 1883 to Miss Rebecca Agnes Harris, daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Peter Harris, pioneer settlers who came out from Tennessee. "Both Mr. and Mrs. AYCOCK have blessed with good health and have lived to see the town of Italy grow from the one store of 1879 to a thriving little city known as widely as any town of its size in the Southwest. MR. AYCOCK has never aspired for political preferment, though there has been but few of the many years of his life that he has not held some position of trust in his church, his town and in the ranks of the democratic party of which he has always been a staunch follower. "MR. AYCOCK was a cousin of ex-Gov. CHARLES AYCOCK of North Carolina, while MRS. AYCOCK is a niece of the late Civil War Governor of Tennessee, Isham Harris, who was a brother of her father Peter Harris. "MR. AYCOCK is at present member of the Ellis County Democratic Executive Committee."