Lumber and railway baron and generous benefactor, Gibson was a pivotal figure in the economy of the Maritimes at a time of transformation and integration within the national economy. A leading entrepreneur in mid-to- late 19th-century New Brunswick, he diversified from lumbering into the cotton industry, leading to the further development of Marysville as one of Canada's first model company towns. Like many Maritime entrepreneurs, his business foundered under the overproduction fostered by the National Policy. Nonetheless, New Brunswick's "Lumber King" left an important legacy of railway and industrial infrastructure in his province.