Joseph McCrum Belford was an American politician and a United States Representative from New New York
Education
Born in Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, Belford attended Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Dickinson College in 1871, and was a member of Phi Kappa Psi. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1889, and practiced in Riverhead.
Career
Belford moved to Long Island, New York in 1884 and taught at the Franklinville and Riverhead Academies. He served as secretary and chairman of the Suffolk County Republican committee and was clerk of the surrogate court. Elected as a Republican to the Fifty-fifth Congress, Belford held the office of United States Representative for the first district of New York from March 4, 1897 to March 3, 1899.
He was not a candidate for renomination in 1898 to the Fifty-sixth Congress and in 1900 was a delegate to the Republican National Convention at Philadelphia.
Resuming the practice of law in Riverhead, Belford also engaged in banking. He served as surrogate judge of Suffolk County from 1904 to 1910.
Belford died suddenly in Grand Central Station, Manhattan, New York County, New York, on May 3, 1917 (age 64 years, 271 days). He is interred at Riverhead Cemetery, Riverhead, Long Island, New New York