Upon the admission of Colorado into the Union, Belford was elected as a Republican to the Forty-fourth Congress from the first district of Colorado and served from October 3, 1876, until March 3, 1877. He presented credentials as a Member-elect to the Forty-fifth Congress and served from March 4, 1877 until December 13, 1877, when he was succeeded by Thomas M. Patterson, who successfully contested the election.
Belford was elected to the Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh, and Forty-eighth Congresses, and served from March 4, 1879 to March 3, 1885. He served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Treasury during the Forty-seventh Congress. He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1884, and engaged in the practice of law in Denver until his death. He was known as the "Red Rooster of the Rockies" because of his flaming red hair and "magnificently roseate beard."[1]
In the mid-1890s he gained notoriety for successfully defending Denver conman and crime boss Soapy Smith in several cases.[2]
Death
Belford died in Denver, Colorado, on January 10, 1910 (age 72 years, 104 days). He is interred at Riverside Cemetery, Denver, Colorado.
^Perkin, Robert L. (1959). The First Hundred Years: An Informal History of Denver and the Rocky Mountain News. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. pp. 363, 381.
^Smith, Jeff (2009). Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel, Klondike Research. p. 159-63, 255–57, 292, 376, 379, 382, 386–88, 403. ISBN0-9819743-0-9
^"James B. Belford". Archives & Special Collections at Dickinson College. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
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