Otis was born on August 3, 1811, in Halifax, Vermont. He moved away from home at the age of nineteen, and settled in Troy, New York. There he worked as a wagon driver. In 1834, Otis married Susan A. Houghton, with whom he had two children, Charles and Norton. Later in 1834, Otis suffered a terrible case of pneumonia, which nearly killed him, but he earned enough to move his wife and three-year-old son to the Vermont Hills on the Green River. He designed and built a gristmill, but when the gristmill did not provide enough money, he converted the gristmill to a sawmill. The sawmill still did not attract customers. Once Otis’ second son was born, he started building wagons and carriages. Susan then died, leaving Otis with two sons, one eight years old and the other an infant.
In 1845, Otis moved to Albany, where he worked as a master mechanic in a bed frame factory. During this time, he invented a railway safety brake. By 1852, Otis had moved to Yonkers, New York, to work at the Maize & Burns bedstead factory, installing machinery. The factory needed a hoist to lift heavy equipment to the upper floor, but the hoist posed serious safety issues. In response, Otis invented the safety elevator. The following year, Otis left Maize & Burns and founded the Otis Elevator Company.
Demand began to rise for the safety elevator after his demonstration of the invention at the New York Crystal Palace. Otis installed the first safety elevator for passenger service at the E.V. Haughwout Building in New York City in 1857.
In Otis’ spare time, he designed and experimented with his designs of bread-baking ovens and train brakes, and he patented a steam plow in 1857, a rotary oven in 1858, and with his son Charles, the oscillating steam engine in 1860. The steam plow was not commercially successful.
Otis contracted diphtheria and died in April 1861 at the age of 49. He was buried in Oakland Cemetery in Yonkers, New York. The Otis Elevator Company was acquired by United Technologies in 1976, but Otis Elevator Company was spun off from United in 2020 as an independent elevator company.
The World War II U.S. ship SS Elisa Graves Otis was named after Otis.
Today Otis Elevator Company nets $14.3 billion in sales, and manages 2.4 million elevators worldwide, which move an estimated 2.4 billion people daily.