James H. Longden

James Henry Longden (May 3, 1858 - October 3, 1934) was an American lawyer and travelling insurance agent, briefly associated with James Armstrong and his diploma mill racket in Chicago, Illinois prior to his relocation to California, where he became involved in certain Spiritualist establishments, including the National Independent Temple of Spiritual Science and National Independent Spiritualist Association. Longden was infamously employed as an attorney by Norman Lee Freeman and numerous other North Carolinians pressing claims against the Mark Hopkins estate, claims that were first filed in the California courts over forty-five years after Hopkins had passed away.

As a California attorney, Longden called himself Judge Longden, claiming he was a former judge on the United States Circuit Court of Appeals at Illinois; however, there are no judicial records that support such claims.

Garden City Law School at Chicago, Illinois (1897)
Incorporated in March 1897, Longden's school was exposed by the Chicago Tribune as a diploma mill that was selling diplomas for $20, using local lawyers' names without their permission, in September 1897; it was shuttered by Longden shortly thereafter.



Spiritualist Affiliations and Incorporations (1913-'17)

 * Society of Occult Thought (1913)
 * National Independent Temple of Spiritual Science (1914)
 * Church of Spiritual Creation (1917)
 * National Independent Spiritualist Association (1917)
 * "In the articles of the National Independent Spiritualist Association, the names of the directors of the new organization appear as follows: James H. Longden, Harry J. Stevens, G. W. Evans, Henrietta F. Longden, James H. Curtis, B. S. Roach, Joe B. Rhodes, Mrs. Jennie McHenry, Mrs. Elizabeth Francis and Mrs. Parmelia Daugherty."
 * National Independent Spiritualist Association (1917)
 * "In the articles of the National Independent Spiritualist Association, the names of the directors of the new organization appear as follows: James H. Longden, Harry J. Stevens, G. W. Evans, Henrietta F. Longden, James H. Curtis, B. S. Roach, Joe B. Rhodes, Mrs. Jennie McHenry, Mrs. Elizabeth Francis and Mrs. Parmelia Daugherty."
 * "In the articles of the National Independent Spiritualist Association, the names of the directors of the new organization appear as follows: James H. Longden, Harry J. Stevens, G. W. Evans, Henrietta F. Longden, James H. Curtis, B. S. Roach, Joe B. Rhodes, Mrs. Jennie McHenry, Mrs. Elizabeth Francis and Mrs. Parmelia Daugherty."