Amazing 1840's Aurora, Illinois - California Gold Rush Ledger, Notes - READ !

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Historic Aurora, IL Gold Rush Outfitter Ledger & Notes !
The following ledger was kept by John H. Thompson (1822-1895) for a few years in the 1840’s while living in Illinois.
From the Draft Registration Records we learn that he was born in Massachusetts in 1822 and that he was a 41 year-old merchant in East Aurora, Kane county, Illinois in June 1863. He had no prior military service. He may have been the same John H. Thompson who married Martha Sawyer in Kane County, Illinois, in 1857 but there is no census record where I could find John in Aurora or elsewhere.
John’s gravestone is located in Spring Lake Cemetery in Aurora. It indicates that he was born in 1822 and died in 1895. Interment was on 8 February 1895. If John was married, his wife was not buried with him in Spring Lake Cemetery. There is no biographical sketch included with the Find-A-Grave file for John.
In the inside of John’s ledger, written with a blue ink ball point pen and in a more recent style of hand writing, someone has entered, “John L. Thompson, Aurora, Ill., 1822-1895.” I searched for some time without success to find an Aurora, Illinois, resident of that name in that time frame, but finally found “John H. Thompson” and the gravestone in Aurora.
Regrettably John’s ledger contains few other clues that would add to a biographical sketch. It appears that in the late 1870’s he was a merchant in the boot and shoe business in Aurora and that for a time he was a partner with Albert M. Brown (1837-1899).
In one page of the ledger, John has recorded the results of the 1844 Popular Vote for President of the United States in which Clay, Polk and Birney were on the ticket.
On another page headed “Chicago, May 1st, 1848,” John has recorded the “Plays seen at the theatre during 1848” and he has enumerated the titles of multiple theatre performances by
Dan Marbles
,
Miss Julia Dean
,
Edwin Forrest
,
Mrs. Farren & Mr. G. Jamison
,
Mrs. [George] Jones
& Depit, and “Mr. Booth.” The plays were like all attended at the theatre of J. B. Rice who dedicated it on 28 June 1847—the first theatre building constructed in Chicago (see image). It stood on the south side of Randolph Street, 50 feet east of Dearborn. Edwin Forrest and Junius Brutus Booth were among the attractions of that year. The theater burned July 30, 1850.
The ledger also contains curious entries suggesting that perhaps John contemplated or actually outfitted to take an overland journey to the gold field of California in 1849. The entries appear to me, however, only notes that he might find useful on the journey, some of it taken from Stephen Watts Kearny’s Guide Book on the California Trail. Some of the purchase prices suggest to me that he actually made some purchases, but whether he never left the “jumping off” point or did so, and then turned back, I have not been able to conclude from the ledger.
There is a John H. Thompson, born in Massachusetts in 1822, enumerated among the residents of San Francisco in the 1852 State Census. He was identified as a cook, hailing from New Bedford.
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