His home in Union, South Carolina is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

He was admitted to the bar 1848 and practiced law in the Upstate while concurrently holding the position of president of the Spartanburg and Union Railroad.

With the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Jeter volunteered for service in the Confederate Army and was made a captain of infantry.

He was elected to the South Carolina Senate in 1872, after becoming disenchanted by Radical Republican rule of the state during Reconstruction.

He continued to serve in the Senate and became the President Pro Tempore in November 1877, because of the mass resignations of Republicans after their party's defeat in the gubernatorial election of 1876.