John Albert Thompson (born Jon Torsteinsson Rue; April 30, 1827 â€"
May 15, 1876), nicknamed Snowshoe Thompson, an early resident of the
Sierra Nevada of Nevada and California, was a Norwegian-American
considered to be the father of California skiing.Jon Torsteinsson Rue
was born on the Rue farm in Austbygdi, Tinn in Telemark, Norway. He
was the son of Torsten Olsen Rue (ca. 1760-1829) and Gro Jonsdatter
HÃ¥kaland (1781-ca. 1846). His father died when Thompson was 2 years
old.In 1837, at the age of 10, Thompson came to America with his
mother, settling first on a farm in the Fox River settlement in
LaSalle County, Illinois. The family subsequently moved on the
Norwegian immigrant settlement in Shelby County, Missouri which was
under the leadership of Cleng Peerson. In 1839, they were joined by
Thompson's brother Tostein (1819-1880) and sister Kari (born 1822). In
1840, they followed Hans Barlien and moved to the Sugar Creek
Settlement in Lee County, Iowa.In 1846, Thompson and his brother
Tostein came to Dane County, Wisconsin. In 1851, Thompson drove a herd
of milk cows to California and settled in Placerville. For a short
while he mined in Kelsey Diggins, Coon Hollow and Georgetown. With the
small amount he saved, he bought a small ranch at Putah Creek, in the
Sacramento Valley. In 1860, Thompson homesteaded a 160-acre ranch in
Diamond Valley, south of Genoa in California's Alpine County. Snowshoe Thompson Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter