With his large, good-natured eyes and thick red hair brushed straight up, audiences might laugh, ruining the gravitas of any scene.

[1] Thompson returned to Toronto that fall, then moved to his native United States in 1868, where he continued to work in theatre.

Years later, he was with a vaudeville troupe when he wrote a short sketch about "Joshua Whitcomb," a New Hampshire "hayseed" who travels to the big city.

The new play opened in Boston in April 1886 with Thompson in the lead role, and became a very successful production that made him wealthy, with both a West Swanzey gentleman's farm and nearby lakefront summer cottage.

In 1914, the Kalem Company also made the highly successful adventure film serial, The Hazards of Helen, based on Thompson's work.

The full arc of Denman Thompson’s career and The Old Homestead is told in Howard Mansfield’s book, Turn & Jump: How Time and Place Fell Apart.

(‘As good as the play.’)” Denman Thompson died when aged 77 at his home in West Swanzey; he was survived by two daughters and a son.