Internet Falls In Love with Romantic 150-Year-Old Personal Ad

By Dave Basner

November 15, 2020

Long before Tinder, single people used the newspaper to find love, and one of the earliest versions of a personal ad was just unearthed, and it's making people fall in love with the man who wrote it in 1865 - a young farmer from Maine with a "good set of teeth" looking for "some person of the female persuasion." 

In his "advertisement for a wife," which is called "Chance for a Spinster," the patriotic 18-year-old professes his belief in "[17th President] Andy Johnson, the star-spangled banner and July 4." 

He also reveals he just bought some land and touts his farming abilities, explaining, "My buckwheat looks first rate, and the oats and potatoes are bully. I have got nine sheep, a two-year-old bull, and two heifers, besides a house and a barn."

As for why he posted an ad, the lonely man says, "I want to get married. I want to buy bread-and-butter, hoop-skirts and waterfalls for some person of the female persuasion during life. That's what the matter with me. But I don't know how to do it."

So many women were touched by the hopeless romantic's ad that one guy tried using it in his Tinder profile.

No word on if the young farmer ever found a "person of the female persuasion during life," but if he did, she was probably a very lucky woman.

Photo Credit: Getty

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