Page:Autobiographies and portraits of the President, cabinet, Supreme court, and Fifty-fifth Congress (IA autobiographiesp02neal).pdf/211

 JETER C. PRITCHARD

, was born in Jonesboro, Tenn., on the 12th day of July, 1857. His father, William H. Pritchard or Pritchett, was a private in the Confederate army, being a member of a company of which his brother Mark was captain. Senator Pritchard at the age of twelve years was apprenticed to Dr. W. C. Wheeler, one of the proprietors of the Herald and Tribune, a Republican newspaper published at Jonesboro, Tenn. After learning the trade, was employed as foreman of the Union Flag, published by Capt. Edgar Grissom. The Union Flag was a Republican paper and was also published at Jonesboro, Tenn. Capt. Grissom died with cholera in the year 1872, and Senator Pritchard left Tennessee and went to North Carolina, where he was first employed as foreman of the Bakersville Independent. We afterwards became one of the proprietors of the paper, and converted it into a Republican organ; was licensed to practice law in 1887. In 1877 he moved to Madison County, N. C., where he now resides. He was elected to the State legislature as a member of the lower house for three terms, and was the Republican caucus nominee for United States Senator in the year 1891, when Senator Vance was reëlected. He was the Republican candidate for Congress in 1892, and, although he succeeded in reducing the former majority. his opponent, Mr. Crawford, was elected. He was elected to the United States Senate on the 24th day of January, 1895, to succeed Senator Vance, and was reëlected to the Senate in January, 1897.