Thompsonville was established in the 19th century as a carpet-manufacturing community. Orrin Thompson, from whom the community takes its name, built a dam across Freshwater Brook in 1828 and opened the first carpet mill in 1829. Thompson's first mill, named "White Mill", employed skilled weavers brought from Scotland. Initially its product was largely flat-woven ingrain carpeting, an inexpensive type of carpeting, but over time it added more expensive weaves, such as three-ply ingrain and loop brussels. The mill had 230 looms in operation as of 1846.

Carpeting continued to be manufactured in Thompsonville until 1971, by which time most production had shifted to the southern United States.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thompsonville,_Connecticut

According to T*he Springfield Daily Republican* (November 30, 1869) Twain was to lecture that evening in Thompsonville, Connecticut's North Congregational Church on the "Curiosities of California" for the "Thompsonviille lecture association."

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