Denman Thompson

Henry Denman Thompson was born on October 15, 1833, in Girard, Pennsylvania, near Erie, where his parents had relocated from West Swanzey, New Hampshire two years earlier. His father, Rufus Thompson, worked as a carpenter, and his mother was Anne Hathaway Baxter. In 1847, the family returned to West Swanzey, where Thompson received his education. At nineteen, he took work as a bookkeeper in Lowell, Massachusetts, and it was during this period that he developed an interest in pursuing theatre professionally.

Thompson made his professional stage debut in 1850 at the Howard Athenæum in Boston, appearing as a supernumerary in Macbeth. His first speaking role came two years later in Lowell, where he played Orasman in the military drama The French Spy. In 1854 he relocated to Toronto to train at the Royal Lyceum, and in 1860 he married Maria Bolton, with whom he had three children. His physical appearance — large, good-natured eyes and thick red hair brushed straight up — made it difficult to sustain dramatic gravitas onstage, and audiences tended to laugh during serious scenes. By 1862 he had abandoned tragedy and was performing as a low comedian at the City of London Theatre in England. He returned to Toronto that fall and moved back to the United States in 1868, continuing his work in theatre.

While traveling with a vaudeville troupe, Thompson wrote a short sketch centered on a character named Joshua Whitcomb, a New Hampshire farmer who ventures into the city. He performed the routine for the first time in Pittsburgh in 1875, where it was warmly received and grew steadily in popularity over the following years. In 1885, Thompson expanded the sketch into a four-act play titled The Old Homestead, which opened in Boston in April 1886 with Thompson in the lead role. The production became a major commercial success and generated enough wealth for Thompson to maintain both a gentleman's farm and a lakefront summer cottage in West Swanzey. He toured with the play throughout the United States before bringing it to Broadway in 1904, with a revival following in 1907. Thompson appeared on Broadway between 1898 and 1908, and The Old Homestead represented his most prominent credit during that period.

Thompson also wrote other plays, several in collaboration with George W. Ryer (1843–1902). Among these collaborative works was an 1886 Broadway production whose story became the basis for the 1926 film Sunshine of Paradise Alley, and a 1903 Broadway production of Our New Minister, which was later adapted into a 1913 Kalem Company film starring Alice Joyce and Tom Moore. Thompson's Broadway credits also included The Three Sisters. In 1914, the Kalem Company produced the adventure film serial The Hazards of Helen, also based on Thompson's work. After his death, The Old Homestead was adapted into a silent film in 1915 by the Famous Players Film Company, and the story was subsequently filmed again in 1922 and 1935.

The character of Joshua Whitcomb extended well beyond the stage. Uncle Josh appeared in early Edison films, and recordings of his stories were released on phonograph cylinders. The character was also used to advertise Ivory soap, and a cigar brand bearing the name Josh Whitcomb was marketed to the public. Thompson died on April 14, 1911, at his home in West Swanzey at the age of 77, survived by two daughters and a son. He is commemorated by New Hampshire historical marker number 22, located near Route 32 in Swanzey.