Born on July 12, 1857, in Jonesboro, Washington County, Tennessee,[1] He attended the Martins Creek Academy in Tennessee.[when?][2]
Career
Pritchard was apprenticed to the printer's trade, then moved to Bakersville, Mitchell County, North Carolina, in 1873.[2] He became joint editor and owner of the Roan Mountain Republican.[2] He was a Presidential Elector on the Republican Party ticket in North Carolina in 1880.[2]
On October 21, 1898, Pritchard sent a letter to President William McKinley, requesting federal marshals to protect black voters in the upcoming election. He warned that Democrats were stockpiling weapons and threatening black voters, and said that Democrats' claims of "Negro domination" were without basis. The letter was discussed by McKinley and his cabinet on October 24, but federal marshals were not sent as Governor Daniel Lindsay Russell had not made the request. As a result, intimidation by Red Shirts kept black voters away from the polls, resulting in a sweeping Democratic victory. On the day following the election, the Wilmington insurrection of 1898 broke out.[5]
Pritchard began reversing his views on civil rights in 1900, becoming a lily-white and opposing black officeholders.[6]
Senator Pritchard married Augusta L. Ray in 1877 and they became the parents of three sons and a daughter—William D. (an army officer killed in the Philippines in 1904), George M. Pritchard (a politician in the Republican Party),[2] Thomas A., and Ida (Mrs. Thomas S. Rollins). Following the death in 1886 of his wife, Pritchard married Melissa Bowman by whom he had another son, J. McKinley. After the death of his second wife in 1902, Judge Pritchard married Lillian E. Saum in 1903.
Honor
Pritchard Park in downtown Asheville is named in Pritchard's memory.[9]
