Lucius Colburn was born in Plymouth, Vermont in 1854 to Moses and Eunice Colburn. He had a younger brother, who died in 1879 while they lived near Rutland. Lucius never married and devoted himself to lecturing and working as a medium the rest of his life.
During the 1880s and 1890s, Lucius traveled throughout Vermont while living in Manchester. He gave lecturers, inspirational speeches, sermons, improvised poetry, and readings in Orleans County, Essex Junction, St. Albans, East Wallingford, South Barre, Tyson, and Reading.

Lucius was a member of the Vermont Spiritualist Association and participated in a majority of their meetings as lecturer and medium. At the 1890 spiritual convention in Tyson, he gave the opening address, had a séance in a closed session, gave a lecture, improvised a poem and sang music to close the day’s meeting. He also attended Spiritualist Camps, like Lake Sunapee in 1885 where he was known for his “satisfactory tests as a medium.”

The Spiritualists of Lawrence County, New York held a convention at West Potsdam in 1892 where Lucius was the leading speaker. The following year, the Progressive Thinker, vol. 7 no. 184, 3 June 1893 wrote that “Bro. Lucius Colburn is kept very busy going from one part of the state (Vermont) to another, holding meetings and test circles. In his circles he had convinced many a doubting Thomas of spirit return.” By the late 1890s, Lucius was referred to as reverend and conducted sermons in Orleans County on Sundays.

In the 1900 census, Lucius R. Colburn referred to himself as a clergyman. At the 1903 Vermont state convention, Lucius gave a talk entitled, “Is Life worth Living?” It was sometime after that that he moved to California. Reporting on the Summerland Camp Meeting in the Progressive Thinker, vol. 5 no. 210, 10 October 1914, John T. Lillie wrote, “Lucius Colburn eloquent, earnest and honest, not only in his rostrum work helped the camp, but by labor in the entertainments and by contributions did much to make the meeting a financial success.”
Around 1910, Lucius started the Vermont Society in Santa Barbara, California and was president. At the same time, he attended the state Spiritualists association in L.A. and gave Impromptu poems. He was a 1912 San Diego convention speaker. In 1913 he was listed as Mr. Lucius Colburn, pastor of the Progressive Church in Pasadena.

In the Press-Telegram, 10 Nov 1913, they wrote of Lucius, “Speaking on the ‘the ideal life’ at the First Spiritualist church, Universal temple, 415 Linden avenue, Lucius Colburn, of Pasadena said: “We are living today in a most remarkable age. The religions of the past have been of the material nature instead of the spiritual. Our ideals are the real life. Whoever lives to manifest in this life manifests his ideal—it is not the life beyond, but the life onward. The inmost thought of the soul has yet to be expressed and we must begin with child life to develop it. Colburn said while we are chiseling or developing or characters let us strive to make for the very highest ideals we can conceive, Let us do it now, and not wait for some time to come. Let us with our own deeds, actions and principles work out all life’s problems and success and an ideal life will be ours.”

In the 1910s, Lucius owned a boarding house, was a member of the Green Mountain Club, and attended Mineral Park Spiritualist camp. He continued with his Spiritualist lectures in California but died a tragic death in 1925. As a boarding house owner he was known to have plenty of money on him all the time. Thieves broke into his room and tied and gagged him. He did not survive the attack.