The son of immigrants, Condon worked as a clerk in a freight office, then moved to Chicago, Illinois to study maritime law.
Later, Condon became an advocate for memorializing James Shields, publishing a biography and raising funds for his statue at the National Statuary Hall.
Condon was educated in a public school in Rouses Point, New York until he was eleven, when he was forced to drop out due to poor health.
In Richmond v. Moore, which reached the Supreme Court of Illinois, he successfully argued that businesses could legally transact on a Sunday.
Condon also raised $9,000 for a bronze statue of Senator James Shields in the National Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C.