"Levi Colton was born in Longmeadow, Massachusetts in 1803 and died in New Haven, Connecticut in 1885.  He learned the jewelry and silversmith business at which he worked in New York, Boston, Utica and other places.  He apparently made surveyor's compasses for a short while in Hartford, Connecticut because he is listed in Geer's Hartford City Directory 1854 as a mathematical instrument maker."

Reference:   Smart, Charles E.   The Makers Of Surveying Instruments In America Since 1700  Troy, New York:  Regal Art Press.   1962