“Educated in the public schools of Massena, Joseph Elliott was graduated from the Albany College in 1877. About the same time, he married Letitia Ellis of Colton, St. Lawrence, NY, and set up practice in nearby Canton. His teenage sister, Caroline, joined the household, to be followed by their father, probably in 1881. By this time, two sons, George Alfred and Avery Reeves had been born.

Also it was during this period that Joseph began developing his avocation of painting. One of his early works, “The Marshes,” was hung in the Massena Public Library. After the death of his father, he moved his family to Chicago, where the third son, Joseph Elliott, Jr., was born in 1886. Dr. Colburn’s brother, Frank Alfred, came to Chicago in 1887 where he died in 1899. During his long medical career in Chicago, as a specialist in diseases of the eye and ear, he served in many capacities: opthamalmic surgeon in the Cook County Hospital, professor of opthalmology at Chicago Polyclinic, president of the Western Society of Opthalmology. He was the author of a book and of monographs in his specialty.

As a serious amateur painter, particularly of landscapes of New England and of the parks and forest preserves in the Chicago area, his work was exhibited at the Art Institute, and he served as vice president of the Chicago Society of Artists. He was one of the early members of The Cliff Dwellers. Dr. Colburn’s office was located at various addresses in The Loop and his residences were on the South Side, but in his later years he lived in Highland Park, and after his third marriage, in Winthrop Harbor.

After the death of Letitia, in 1898, he married Eleanor Gump, with a daughter from a previous marriage. An instructor at the Art Institute of Chicago, she gained a reputation for herself as a painter. After their divorce in 1914 she moved first to New Rochelle, NY, and then to Laguna Beach, CA, where she became a  prominent member of the artists colony. She died in 1939. His third marriage, in 1915, was to Laura, sister of Henry Roecker, an architect and fellow member of the Cliff Dwellers. From about 1924 until his death in 1927, they lived in Winthrop Harbor in a house designed by his son George. She survived her husband.”

” …and direct the nurse to clean the eye every two hours with a solution of hot boric acid. If the cornea is not improving and the projecting limiting membrane is not receding by the second day, I shall draw off the aqueous as in case represented by Fig. 93. (Ten days later) The condition of the ulcer not improving and the conjunctiva less septic, I feel justified in making the paracentesis. This done I shall with no little misgiving trust for betterment, for there is danger of general infection. The eighth day the cornea is almost closed over with an extensive Fig. 94. Corneal ulcer, serpiginous. scar covering the site of the ulcer. I shall remove the sac. In this case I have found the salt solution most soothing. Mr. L., a street-car driver, forty years of age, comes to our clinic giving the following history: Just before retiring about sixty hours ago, he felt a sharp, stinging pain in the right eye. The pain continued during the night and he applied a poultice of hot flaxseed meal. The next day and night he suffered only little pain, but he comes this morning complaining of increased distress and almost total blindness. The epithelial layer of the cornea is unbroken, but there is a conical projection of the center of the cornea. The entire cornea is a dull yellow, the peri.cornea is deeply engorged, and the tension of the eye above normal. (Plate XVIII, I would to-day use protonuclein in such a case. Fig. 2.) The cornea is not very sensitive to touch and it seems to be slightly fluctuating. He has been having a series of boils on the neck and shoulders. Treatment: I shall make a small incision through the external layer of the cornea and allow the contents of the abscess to discharge, then use bichloride–jT–freely, and apply a dressing of boric acid solu…”