Early in his career he worked as a minister and teacher in various towns in Alabama, moving to the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1883 and serving there for about ten years.

Pettiford has been called the most significant institutional builder and leader in the African American community in Birmingham during the period in which he lived.

About the age of ten, his parents sold their farm and moved to Person County, North Carolina, where Pettiford was able to get a tutor and more formal lessons.

He entered the State Normal School at Marion, Alabama where he studied for seven years, teaching and farming in his spare time to fund his education.

[5][6] He was an attendee of the 1889 American National Baptist Convention in Indianapolis where William J. Simmons led the push to provide aid for blacks fleeing violence in the South and moving to the North.

The school opened in September 1900 with Arthur H. Parker principal in the Cameron Building and held its first graduation at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in 1904.

[1] In September 1902, he led the local organization for relief of the victims of the Shiloh Baptist Church stampede that killed over 100 people during a speech given by Booker T. Washington[10] He was again an Alabama delegate-at-large to the 1908 Republican National Convention in Chicago.

[14] At the Sixteenth Street church, Pettiford established the Christian Aid Society to help sick members and bury its dead.

[15] He was constantly active in Birmingham and Alabama politics and he worked particularly closely with Reverend T. W. Walker of the cities Shiloh Baptist Church on a number of civil rights and anti-Jim Crow causes.

The Alabama Penny Savings Company opened on October 15, 1890 due to the efforts of Pettiford, Peter F. Clarke (who became the bank's vice-president), B. H. Hudson Sr. (who worked as a cashier), N. B. Smith, Arthur H. Parker, and Thomas W. Walker.

Pettiford's leadership took influence from his friend, Booker T. Washington, emphasizing self-help and racial solidarity while cultivating the assistance of white leaders who helped train employees and finance the bank.

[17] In 1910, Percy Bond organized another bank to service the African-American community in Birmingham, and the two clashed at the 1910 League convention in New York City.