Otis Gibson
Encyclopedia
Rev. Dr. Otis Gibson ' onMouseout='HidePop("47799")' href="/topics/Pinyin">Pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
: Jīshùn; Foochow Romanized: Gĭ-sông; December 8, 1826 – January 25, 1889) was a Methodist pastor
Pastor
The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....
, best known for his missionary work to the Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
.
Early life
Born on a farm in Moira, New YorkMoira, New York
Moira is a town in Franklin County, New York, United States. The population was 2,857 at the 2000 census. Moira is located on the western border of Franklin County and is west of the Village of Malone.- History :...
, Otis Gibson had five brothers and one sister. He was converted
Conversion to Christianity
Conversion to Christianity is the religious conversion of a previously non-Christian person to some form of Christianity. It has been called the foundational experience of Christian life...
at the age of 13 after the sudden death of his brother. When he was 19, he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church
Methodist Episcopal Church
The Methodist Episcopal Church, sometimes referred to as the M.E. Church, was a development of the first expression of Methodism in the United States. It officially began at the Baltimore Christmas Conference in 1784, with Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke as the first bishops. Through a series of...
. In the early 1850s he attended Dickinson College
Dickinson College
Dickinson College is a private, residential liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Originally established as a Grammar School in 1773, Dickinson was chartered September 9, 1783, five days after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, making it the first college to be founded in the newly...
. Later he became a teacher and went to a Quaker settlement in Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
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.
Missionary work in China
Otis Gibson's ordination was given in 1854, but his scheduled sail had to be postponed till spring the next year because the recording secretary forgot to record the recommendation. On April 3, 1855 Gibson and wife set sail from New York HarborNew York Harbor
New York Harbor refers to the waterways of the estuary near the mouth of the Hudson River that empty into New York Bay. It is one of the largest natural harbors in the world. Although the U.S. Board of Geographic Names does not use the term, New York Harbor has important historical, governmental,...
on a clipper ship bound for Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
. On that day Gibson wrote, "Believing that God ordered our course, we feel content and satisfied that all is for the best." Finally they reached Foochow on August 13, 1855, following Gibson's teacher Erastus Wentworth
Erastus Wentworth
Erastus Wentworth was an educator, a Methodist Episcopal minister, and a missionary to Foochow, China.- Life :Dr. Wentworth was born in Stonington, Connecticut. He converted to Methodism in 1831. Later he studied at the Cazenovia Seminary and attained an undergraduate degree at Wesleyan University...
with whom he got acquainted at Dickinson College
Dickinson College
Dickinson College is a private, residential liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Originally established as a Grammar School in 1773, Dickinson was chartered September 9, 1783, five days after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, making it the first college to be founded in the newly...
.
In 1856, Otis Gibson and his Methodist co-laborers established two churches in the city, namely, Church of the True God (真神堂) and Church of Heavenly Peace
Church of Heavenly Peace, Fuzhou
Church of Heavenly Peace , also known as Church of Heavenly Rest or Tien Ang Tong, is a Christian church in Fuzhou, China.-Location:...
(天安堂), which were the first two Methodist churches built in East Asia
East Asia
East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...
. On December 26, 1856, Gibson purchased a place in the South bank of River Min and established there in 1859 a commodious wooden Western-style boarding school for laymen and ministers. In the 1860s Gibson also helped in the translation work of the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
and other Christian books into the local Foochow dialect.
On June 14, 1857 Otis Gibson and Robert S. Maclay baptized their first convert, a native tradesman named Ting Ang (陈安). Some weeks later he and Maclay made an unannounced visit to Ting Ang's house and found no sign of idols.
During his tenure in China, Gibson also started the Methodist mission in Yen-p'ing (today Nanping
Nanping
Nanping is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It borders Ningde City to the east, Sanming City to the south, and the provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangxi to the north and west respectively...
) in 1864. There Gibson succeeded in renting a small house for use as a chapel, but he was faced with strong opposition. Soon afterwards, he went back with Eliza to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and his work in Yen-p'ing was continued by Nathan Sites
Nathan Sites
Nathan Sites was a 19th century Methodist Episcopal missionary stationed at Foochow, China.-Life:Dr. Rev. Nathan Sites was graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University. In 1861, he reached Foochow with his wife Sarah Moore Sites to begin his oversea missionary work which would last until his death...
and other Methodist missionaries.
Life back in America
Due to his wife Eliza's failing health, Otis Gibson left China with her in 1865 and returned to MoiraMoira, New York
Moira is a town in Franklin County, New York, United States. The population was 2,857 at the 2000 census. Moira is located on the western border of Franklin County and is west of the Village of Malone.- History :...
as a pastor
Pastor
The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....
. In 1868 he was assigned to San Francisco, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
as superintendent of the Methodist Church's "Chinese Domestic Mission" designed to minister to the swelling number of Chinese immigrants in area of the California Conference. There he learned the Cantonese dialect and opened many missions and churches, including San Francisco, Oakland, Stockton
Stockton, California
Stockton, California, the seat of San Joaquin County, is the fourth-largest city in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. With a population of 291,707 at the 2010 census, Stockton ranks as this state's 13th largest city...
, Salinas
Salinas
-People:*Anita Reeves Salinas, Chilean television, film and theatre actress*Camilo Salinas, Chilean musician*Carlos Salinas de Gortari, a Mexican president*Francisco de Salinas, a 16th century Spanish music theorist*Francisco Vidal Salinas, Chilean politician...
, and in the gold fields in the foothills of California, and he also wrote a Chinese-English Dictionary and translated the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
into Cantonese. Gibson and his wife had instituted on August 10, 1870 the Women's Missionary Society of the Pacific Coast
Women's Missionary Society of the Pacific Coast
The Women's Missionary Society of the Pacific Coast was founded on October 29, 1870 by Otis T. Gibson, et al. with the purpose to work among the slave girls in Chinatown, San Francisco, California....
, enlisting area Methodist women to organize the rescue and protection of exploited Chinese women of the slave trade. In October 1871, Gibson baptized his first convert in America, a young Chinese prostitute named Jin Ho.
In his later life, Otis Gibson made untiring and courageous efforts in behalf of the poor and the wronged of the Chinese on the Pacific Coast. In his landmark work The Chinese in America (唐人在金山, ISBN 0405112726) which was published in 1877, Gibson concluded his polemic against the anti-Chinese arguments with a noble restatement of the American ideal:
Otis Gibson was strongly anti-Catholic
Anti-Catholicism
Anti-Catholicism is a generic term for discrimination, hostility or prejudice directed against Catholicism, and especially against the Catholic Church, its clergy or its adherents...
.
While attending a preachers meeting in 1884 Gibson was stricken with paralysis
Paralysis
Paralysis is loss of muscle function for one or more muscles. Paralysis can be accompanied by a loss of feeling in the affected area if there is sensory damage as well as motor. A study conducted by the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, suggests that about 1 in 50 people have been diagnosed...
. He died in San Francisco after a long illness on January 25, 1889, at the home of his son.
See also
- Women's Missionary Society of the Pacific CoastWomen's Missionary Society of the Pacific CoastThe Women's Missionary Society of the Pacific Coast was founded on October 29, 1870 by Otis T. Gibson, et al. with the purpose to work among the slave girls in Chinatown, San Francisco, California....
- Charles Goodall Lee