Born on a farm in Moira, New York, Otis Gibson had five brothers and one sister.
He was converted at the age of 13 after the sudden death of his brother.
When he was 19, he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church.
In the early 1850s he attended Dickinson College.
Later he became a teacher and went to a Quaker settlement in Maryland to teach, where he met his wife-to-be Eliza Chamberlain.

Shortly before he graduated from college, Otis Gibson decided to go into the ministry and was appointed as a missionary to Foochow.
He graduated in June 1854 with a D.D. and was licensed to preach on 4 November the same year.
A few months before he and Eliza were sent to China, they got married in a Methodist Camp Meeting.
Born on a farm in Moira, New York, Otis Gibson had five brothers and one sister. He was converted at the age of 13 after the sudden death of his brother. When he was 19, he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. In the early 1850s he attended Dickinson College. Later he became a teacher and went to a Quaker settlement in Maryland to teach, where he met his wife-to-be Eliza Chamberlain.
Shortly before he graduated from college, Otis Gibson decided to go into the ministry and was appointed as a missionary to Foochow. He graduated in June 1854 with a D.D. and was licensed to preach on 4 November the same year. A few months before he and Eliza were sent to China, they got married in a Methodist Camp Meeting.
Otis Gibson