High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Joseph McCrum Belford (August 5, 1852 – May 3, 1917) was a United States Representative from New York. Born in Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, he attended Dickinson Seminary (in Williamsport, Pennsylvania) and was graduated from Dickinson College in 1871. He moved to Long Island, New York in 1884 and engaged in teaching at the Franklinville and Riverhead Academies. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1889, and commenced the practice of law in Riverhead. He served as secretary and chairman of the Suffolk County Republican committee and was clerk of the surrogate court.