VICTORY IN JESUS

Eugene Bartlett was born on Christmas Eve in 1885.  He gave his life to Jesus Christ at an early age.  In childhood, he demonstrated a strong voice and a love for music.  After attending schools in Tennessee and Missouri, Bartlett took to the road, teaching at Singing Schools and writing songs.

As a businessman, he established his career working for the Central Music Company, an Arkansas company that published shaped-note songbooks.  In 1918 he helped form the Hartford Music Company that became a driving force in the development of Southern Gospel music.  He also established the Hartford Music Institute which trained hundreds of teachers and musicians each year.  Notably, one of those students was Albert E, Brumley who later authored the well-known hymn, “I’ll Fly Away.”

In 1939, Eugene Bartlett suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed.  His travelling and performing days were over, and he was to live only two more years.  During his illness, he devoted his time to studying the Bible and counting his blessings. 

The last of his 800 hymns was his most difficult to write.  It was a culmination of his life’s work.  In his now impaired condition, he painfully wrote it, phrase by phrase and note by note, and called it…VICTORY IN JESUS!!  It was Eugene Bartlett’s sincere testimony, that our victory is assured only in the victory of Jesus Christ.