In the spring of 1833 he left for Dubuque (at that time in unorganized territory) and worked as a miner until the fall of 1834, when he went back to Missouri, bought cattle which he drove back to Dubuque and sold, then resumed work in the mines until 1836, when he returned to Missouri and ran a store for a while (interspersed with occasional horseback trips to St. Louis) until fall of 1837, when he moved to Benton.
[2] He was a member of the five-man Board of Arbitrators created in 1847 to settle disputes over land claims in the New Diggings area.
[3] In 1848, upon Wisconsin's admission to the Union, Gibson was elected as a Democrat to represent Lafayette County in the new Senate.
In 1857, newly elected President James Buchanan appointed him postmaster of Benton.
By 1881, Gibson owned about 500 acres of land, as well as real estate in Benton itself; and the couple had six children.