He lived with his in-laws, then married Lucy E. Crockett on June 27, 1875, who gave birth to Hiram Hagan Pridemore (1876-1926).

[3] During the Civil War, Pridemore raised a company of volunteer infantry for the Pound Gap battalion of the Confederate Army and was commissioned as its captain on October 17, 1861.

Elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1865, his Confederate record under Congressional Reconstruction prevented him from taking a seat.

Lee County voters again elected Pridemore, as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives in 1876, where he replaced William Terry and he was re-elected once, serving from 1877 to 1879.

[7] Pridemore named the unincorporated community of Ben Hur, Virginia after the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace.