Almon B. Richmond was born in Indiana in 1825, the youngest child of Lawton and Sarah Richmond. He was a direct descendant of John Richmond, a Puritan who arrived on the Mayflower. His father was a physician and surgeon whose practice extended throughout the countryside. After the family moved to Chautauqua, New York, Almon attended Allegheny college first taking medical courses and then studying law in Meadville, Pennsylvania.
He was admitted to practice in 1851 and had a long law career as a defense attorney, practicing in several states. The History of Crawford County published in 1885, states that he was involved in 4,000 criminal cases, 65 of which were homicides. By the time he retired in 1903, he had been involved with over 100 homicide cases.
Along with law, Almon was well versed in mechanics and the sciences. He was appointed assistant director of machinery at Crystal Palace in 1853. He also gave many lectures on philosophy, physiology, and chemistry. He was an advocate of the Temperance Movement and delivered many lectures on the topic. His books included Leaves from the Diary of an Old Lawyer, Intemperance and Crime, and Court and Prisoner.
Almon visited Cassadaga Lake (Lily Dale today) in 1887 and became interested in Spiritualism. He later wrote books entitled A Review of the Seybert Commissioner’s Report and Nemesis of Chautauqua Lake or Circumstantial Evidence, a fictional story. In the introduction, he writes: “Fiction is often truth colored by the brush or pen of the artist, or molded by the chisel of the sculptor.”
During the 1890s he was a regular lecturer at Cassadaga Lake and researched psychic phenomena and occult sciences. According to the Record-Argus, 19 July 1906, “He also lectured on many subjects and was for several years one of the most attractive personalities on the Spiritualistic lecture platform.” He also authored: “What I saw at Cassadaga.”
A lecture given by Almon at the Meadville Psychological Hallin 1889 entitled “The Dual Life; or, the Natural and the Spiritual Body” attracted a large crowd. He began by stating that the natural and spiritual body are in sympathy with each other. The Evening Republican reported that he said: “The belief that there is no hereafter is disloyalty to truth and treason to science.” It continued: “In telling what spiritualism has done and is doing, the essayist, among other things, said it confirms the faith of the Christian, and ignores the dark superstition of a hell.”
Almon published articles in the 1891book, Golden Way. He wrote in his “Immortality” article “If there is a spirit world, and if the spirits of those who have ‘passed away’ can and do visit the scenes of their earthly life they must all be governed by the laws that environ them in their new existence, and although any one may invoke their presence it is not certain that they will always come at their bidding. For this reason, set investigations by learned and honest committees may fail in obtaining results as satisfactory as those of the private séance or home circle.”
Almon retired from practice and moved to Pittsburgh in 1903 where he died at the home of his son three years later in 1906.