1854–1941

Introduction

Born: No­vem­ber 16, 1854, Maine.

Died: 1941, Harts­ville, In­di­ana.

Buried: Harts­ville Col­lege Ce­me­te­ry, Harts­ville, In­di­ana.

Pseudonym: Asa All­an Ar­men.

Biography

Byron was the son of John Con­do and Ca­ther­ine Bea­ver, and hus­band of Lu­cre­tia Shuck (marr­ied 1884, In­di­ana).

Sometime in the 1870’s, in his youth, he got in­to trou­ble. He was ad­vised by an at­tor­ney to le­gal­ly change his name and move away. He moved away and changed his name to Asa All­an Ar­men with­out tell­ing his fa­mi­ly.

He served as a min­is­ter in the Unit­ed Breth­ren Church.

According to the 1880 cen­sus, he was liv­ing in Hills­dale, Mi­chi­gan and teach­ing music. He was then hired as a mu­sic teach­er at Hart­man Col­lege in In­di­ana. He met his wife, Lu­cre­tia Shuck, there, and they were mar­ried in 1884.

His wife was hired as a mu­sic teach­er at the high school in Co­lum­bus, In­di­ana and Asa [sic] con­tin­ued his min­is­te­ri­al duties. He was pro­mot­ed as pre­sid­ing el­der of the In­di­ana Con­fer­ence of the Unit­ed Breth­ren Church.

Meanwhile, Rev. A. C. Wil­more, who knew both Ar­men and his bro­ther Sam­uel Con­do, who was min­is­ter of the Con­gre­ga­tion­al Church in Ma­ri­on, In­di­ana, re­cog­nized Armen from pho­tos shown to him by Sam­uel Con­do. Sam­uel Con­do and two oth­er min­is­ters con­front­ed Ar­men in 1897 and threat­ened him with con­se­quenc­es if he did not con­fess his true iden­ti­ty.

Armen then re­signed his com­mis­sion, left his wife (as­sum­ing she knew why) and fled to Maine to have his name le­gal­ly changed back to Ad­am By­ron Con­do. He then moved to Tex­as and taught music.

His wife lat­er learned what had hap­pened, tracked him down, and they start­ed cor­res­pond­ing and vi­sit­ing each oth­er; how­ev­er, her mo­ther was op­posed to them re­unit­ing.

In 1904 Con­do was re­com­mis­sioned as a min­is­ter in the Unit­ed Breth­ren Church, work­ing a cir­cuit head­quar­tered in French Lick, In­di­ana. He was re­unit­ed with his wife in 1906 af­ter his mo­ther-in-law passed away.

Diane Sha­pi­ro, in the Hymnary

Works

Sources

Lyrics

  1. Able to Keep You
  2. As Blind Bar­ti­me­us Sat Be­side the Way
  3. Away to the Work
  4. Beautiful Dream, The
  5. Blessèd Fel­low­ship, A
  6. Bridegroom Com­eth, The
  7. Broder Jo­nah
  8. Busy Lit­tle Reap­ers
  9. Can You Give a Rea­son Why?
  10. Come and See
  11. Come in­to the Gar­den of My Life
  12. Coming Home To­night
  13. Do You Know That You Are Mor­tal?
  14. Every Foe I’ll Con­quer
  15. Fear Not, Lit­tle Flock
  16. Fight the Fight
  17. Follow Af­ter Je­sus
  18. Follow Thou Me
  19. Gather in the Sheaves
  20. Go Win Them To­day
  21. Golden Gate, The
  22. Gospel Bridge, The
  23. Have You Heard of Je­sus?
  24. He Lead­eth Me
  25. He That Ov­er­com­eth
  26. Hide Me Un­der the Sha­dow
  27. Hiding in the Rock
  28. Holding on the Way
  29. Home of the Ran­somed, The
  30. How the Love of Je­sus
  31. I Am Think­ing of My Mo­ther
  32. I Love to Sing for Je­sus
  33. I May Be Poor and Needy
  34. I Need Thee, Pre­cious Je­sus
  35. I Need Thy Pow­er
  36. I Shall Be Sa­tis­fied
  37. I Want to Walk with Je­sus
  38. I Will Be True to Him
  39. I Will Look for You There
  40. I Will Praise Him Ev­er
  41. I Will Sing Sweet Songs
  42. If You Weary Grow
  43. If Your Bur­dens Press You Down
  44. I’ll Go
  45. In the Pal­ace of the King
  46. In the Sec­ret of Thy Pre­sence
  47. It Is Je­sus
  48. I’ve Reached the port
  49. Jesus, the Light of the World
  50. Joy in the Morn­ing
  51. Juniors Are We
  52. Just Be­yond This Land
  53. Lead Me, O My Sav­ior
  54. Lead Me to the Rock
  55. Lend a Help­ing Hand
  56. Let Me Hide
  57. Life’s Beau­ti­ful Sun­set
  58. Living in Oth­ers Ev­ery Day
  59. Living on the Hill­tops
  60. Lost but Found
  61. Love for One An­oth­er
  62. Love Is the Ar­tist
  63. Marvelous Sav­ior, A
  64. Melody Is Now With­in My Heart
  65. Merrily We Sing
  66. My Dear Old Home
  67. My Flow­er Song
  68. My Long Fare­well
  69. My Morn­ing Star
  70. Mystic Gate­way
  71. Not Far from the King­dom
  72. O Slum­ber­er, Awake
  73. Of Whom Shall I Be Afraid?
  74. Open Your Heart to Je­sus
  75. Patiently Wait­ing
  76. Precious Pro­mis­es
  77. Precious Sav­ior, I Will Trust Thee
  78. Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord
  79. Promised Man­sion, The
  80. Radiant Lines of Morn­ing Sun, The
  81. Rest for the Weary
  82. Saved by Grace
  83. Seeking the Lost One Now
  84. Singing the Gos­pel o’er All of the Land
  85. Sitting at the Feet of Je­sus
  86. Take Up Thy Cross
  87. Tell It All to Je­sus
  88. Then Come This Way
  89. There Are Ma­ny Things to Do
  90. There Comes a Cry from o’er the Sea
  91. There’s Ma­ny a Stran­ger
  92. They Are Ga­ther­ing Home
  93. Though Thought­less I’ve Brok­en the Law
  94. Waiting for Us at the Gate
  95. Weary, Hea­vy La­den
  96. When a Sin­ner Re­pents and Re­turns
  97. Why Stay Away?
  98. Why, Stern of Heart, and Dull of Ear?
  99. Will You Come?
  100. Will You Go Today?
  101. Yet a Lit­tle La­bor

Music

  1. Children Are Com­ing, The
  2. Go Bear the Glad Tid­ings
  3. Hyderabad

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