Jeter Conley Pritchard was born on July 12, 1857, in Jonesboro, Tennessee. Pritchard was a newspaperman-turned-lawyer who served in the North Carolina General Assembly for three terms before ascending to the United States Senate in 1895 to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Zebulon Vance. Though a Republican, he managed to hold the seat until 1901. In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, launching a long and impressive judicial career. From 1904 until his death in 1921, he served as judge for the Circuit Court of Appeals of the Fourth District. Pritchard died in Asheville (Buncombe County) on April 10, 1921.