He began his studies at Monson Academy, as a sophomore, he went to Amherst College and his final year he attended Yale.
In the spring of 1827, Colton and classmate Francis Fellowes established Mount Pleasant Classical Institute at Amherst.
[1][2][3] In September 1833, he was the founder and president of Bristol College in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, which combined manual labor and study.
One of the students of Mount Pleasant Classical Institute named John C. Zachos followed Colton to Bristol College.
He then accepted the Professorship of Pastoral Divinity in the Theological Department of Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio.
Attending the institution at the time were future president Rutherford B. Hayes and Supreme Court justice Stanley Matthews.
[7] In 1847, he published, Effective Public Speaking: An Oration, Delivered Before The Burritt Literary Society of Farmers College Ohio.
[8] Zachos published a poem by Colton in his book The New American Speaker entitled The Price of Eloquence.
He was the Principal of St Thomas Hall Military Boys School, and associate rector of Christ Church.