Newspaper ad from 1865 by an 18-year-old man looking for a wife

    by Imbendo

    49 Comments

    1. PauseAffectionate720 on

      Ya’ know, he sounds like a nice guy (with good teeth). Hope it worked out for him ! 😁

      BTW, I lived in Central Maine for many years and had worked up in Aroostook County. If I had to guess, their match.com ads probably still read like this guy’s. 🤭

    2. Trip_on_the_street on

      1865 me would have wanted someone with at least 10 sheep. So close! Turning the page to the next ad.

    3. Intelligent_Trichs on

      How many pairs o britches he got? Need more than one ifn you wanna get hitched.

    4. Gigantopithecus1453 on

      Ah yes, I too want to get married to someone ”of the female persuasion”

    5. disheartenedlark on

      Honestly, this is a hell of a accomplished 18 yr old. We now deal with “failure to launch” and our economy would never let a 18 yr old own a home with actual land PLUS be able to afford bread and butter

    6. SeattleHasDied on

      This is really sweet! The bit about wanting to buy waterfalls is pretty adorable, but does anyone know if he’s referring to a natural water feature or is he referring to something else more common in those days…? (Cue TLC’s “Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls…”)

      **edit to say other commenters may have explained the “waterfalls” comment, thanks! **

    7. CanadianJediCouncil on

      ***”My buckwheat looks first-rate, and the oats and potatoes are bully.”***

      was basically the 1800’s version of

      ***”My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard…”***

    8. “Chance for a spinster” … not really sugar coating it.

      How would a woman reply to this? There’s no contact info.

    9. stalelunchbox on

      “That’s what’s the matter with me.”

      ![gif](giphy|9x5cfRjQZR2hOExhKc|downsized)

    10. I’m from Aroostook county, how crazy! I can relate though. Growing up there, dating was rough. I genuinely thought there must be something wrong with me because I had one girl show interest in me and it lasted all of 4 months maybe. I left the state for college and suddenly it was like I was on an entirely different planet. Turns out there was nothing wrong with me, I just needed to move out of my 400 person town.

    11. KindOfAcceptableBus on

      I have never heard Andrew Johnson be called Andy Johnson…to the point I had to look up with the hell Andy Johnson was…

    12. Brilliant-Wind3443 on

      Dude is only 18 and has his own farm, with two heifers, a bull, buckwheat, and potatoes?! He is way better off than most of us.

    13. shoulda-known-better on

      I bet this worked out well for him…. Sounds like he means well enough….

    14. mynameisnotsparta on

      The women married young to get out of their home and become established in life.

      Many before age 18. This was the goal. Get married and have kids. Work the homestead and plod along in life.

      Especially from big families where they were expected to work at home and outside to help contribute.

      This would have been an optimal opportunity for a young woman to have a husband who was already established with land and a home. Even if there was no instant love they would find a companionship and grow together. Hopefully he was a good man. Not an alcoholic or gambler and not abusive. Women had very little choice back then for jobs.

    15. For those that may not know, Aroostook county is Maines most northern county and the largest by land area (its larger than Rhode Island and Connecticut combined). Currently, Aroostook county has about 66,000 residents, which is about the same as Maines largest city, Portland. By todays standards, finding a suitable mate as an 18, 20 something, 30 something, or really any age person, in Aroostook county is a task. When this was written, the population of Aroostook county was somewhere between 20,000 and 22,000 people, no internet dating, no cars for quick travel through remote areas. It was just you and the handful of people who lived near you.

    16. Ok-Afternoon-3724 on

      I’m 76M

      LOL … If I’d been a young woman’s father back them I be showing her that ad. ‘Honey, this is a definite maybe. You should go find out if you like him, at least.’

      A lot better than some of those frigging losers she dragged home from time to time.

      I don’t remember how many times she told me that this or that guy was so good looking, and/or was so exciting, and/or so much fun. Etc. Sure …. and then after some time she’d figure out she was holding up 80%, or even 90%, of the relationship. While that fellow was in it mostly for what he could get versus what he had to offer.

      The she finally wised up. Asked one day if I was willing to meet the new guy. I said sure. that alone was a plus. Some of her scum picks didn’t even have nerve enough to come meet me.

      So we invited him for dinner. Daughter was nervous. Among other things the guy was 12 years older. Had been married, was divorced. Not a great start.

      But come to find out he’d left the old wife because she still used drugs. He had but had quit. He had a kid by her and was paying child support religiously every month. And one weekend every month he spent with the kid. The ex and kid now lived a couple hundred miles north where she was shacked up with some other guy. They split holidays as far as having him. He explained so I’d know his past, and that some of his time and money was devoted to his kid.

      Daughter nervously mentioned he was just a mechanic. I think she thought I’d look down at that, as I was a degreed engineer. But I started as a mechanic, a ship’s mechanic. Honorable and good work. I asked and he was certified and a heavy equipment mechanic and as a stationary engineer. Fucking A … in my estimate.

      So, let’s see, he gives up his time and money for his kid? Got a decent job, making decent money, and does it well enough to have upper level certifications in it?

      And I’d already seen the way he was acting around daughter. He didn’t ask her to fetch stuff, he got things himself and asked if he could get her something. Openly admitted to a drug past but now staying clean and had cut ties with his old drug using friends. And when dinner was over he insisted on helping with dishes?

      LOL … I told daughter on the side that she’d finally picked one that was a winner. Didn’t know if he’d be the one who she picked, but damn she ought to give him a chance

      She’s they’ve been together now for 20 something years … ummm … 24. And have 4 kids. 3 by him and her. The other, a grown adult now, I’ve always treated like a grandson and he calls me grandpa. We’ve always taken him along on family vacations. And he’s cut ties, mostly, with his mother since reaching age 18. I gather she is still in the druggie scene.

      My point, there is something to say for a man who can show that he has something to offer, rather than just a guy who wants something from someone else. Something other than just good looks and how good he might be in bed.

    17. HeinzThorvald on

      He sounds like an earnest, hardworking young guy. I hope it worked out for him.

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