Elisha Graves Otis was born on August 3, 1811, at Halifax, Windham County, Vermont, the son of Stephen and Phoebe (Glynn) Otis. He was a descendant of John Otis who emigrated from England as early as 1631 and settled in Hingham, Massachussets. Stephen was for many years a justice of the peace in Halifax and also served four terms as a member of the state legislature.
Young Otis received his education in his native town, Halifax, Vermont, where he remained until the age of nineteen, when he went to Troy, New York.
Elisha Otis carried on building operations in Troy, New York, for five years. Forced by illness to give up this strenuous work, he secured a trucking business and engaged in hauling goods between Troy and Brattleboro, Vermont. After three years, having accumulated a little capital, he purchased some land on the Green River in Vermont, where he built a house and gristmill. The latter was not a success, however, and converting it into a sawmill, he began the manufacture of carriages and wagons, which business he continued rather successfully until about 1845. Failing health again compelling him to change his occupation, he moved with his family to Albany, New York, where he found employment as master mechanic in a bedstead manufactory. In the course of his three years' employment there, he acquired a little capital and with this established a small machine shop, where he did general jobbing work and also constructed a turbine water-wheel of his own invention. The source of power for his shop was Patroon's Creek, and when in 1851 the city of Albany took over the creek as part of its water supply, Otis was forced out of business.
Meanwhile, one of his former employers had established a bedstead factory at Bergen, New Jersey, and Otis moved there late in 1851 to become master mechanic in this factory. The following year his employers began the construction of a new factory at Yonkers, New York, and Otis was put in charge of its erection and the installation of the machinery. In the course of this work it became necessary to construct an elevator, and during its building Otis devised and incorporated a number of unique features. The most important of these was a safety appliance that operated automatically and prevented the elevator from falling in case the lifting chain or rope broke. This elevator, the first with safety appliances, attracted the attention of a number of New York manufacturers with the result that in a short time Otis was given orders for three elevators.
Otis gave up his position with the bedstead factory and established a shop of his own in Yonkers. The three elevators which he built and installed may be said to be the beginning of the elevator business. In 1854 he demonstrated his safety elevator at the American Institute Fair in New York by standing on a full-size model and deliberately cutting the rope after it had ascended to some height. From this time on, his business gradually expanded until at the time of his premature death he had a plant valued at $5, 000 and employed from eight to ten men. Orders for elevators were, of course, not numerous and in addition to carrying on the work of improving them, he devised a number of other mechanical contrivances. On May 25, 1852, he received a patent for railroad car trucks and brakes, and on October 20, 1857, one for a steam plow. He also invented a bake oven, patented August 24, 1858, but with the invention of his steam elevator, for which he received a patent on Jan. 15, 1861, he established the firm foundation for the elevator business upon which his sons so successfully built. Elisha Otis died in Yonkers at the age of 49.
Otis was twice married: first, on June 2, 1834, to Susan A. Houghton of Halifax, who died February 25, 1842; and second, about 1845, to Mrs. Elizabeth A. Boyd.
