“As I am looking for a ‘better half,’ I will briefly state my wants through your valuable Journal:

I am twenty-seven years of age, rather tall and well-proportioned, weighing one hundred and fifty pounds. I use no tea, coffee, snuff, rum, tobacco, or allopathic medicines; am neither rich nor poor. In religion I am a free thinker-believer in progress and reform. I possess a healthy body, a strong mind, a vigorous constitution, and a warm, loving and affectionate heart.

I desire a companion of a cheerful disposition, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five. She may be rich or poor, handsome or homely; but she must possess a true woman’s heart, and know how to appreciate true worth. In dress I should wish her to consult her own taste, and hope she would have good sense enough to dress according to her physical requirements, other than fashion. In short, any young lady who wishes to govern and be governed by the principle of love, may find my address at Messrs. Fowlers and Wells, New York.”

—personal advertisement posted in the Water-Cure Journal (a publication dedicated to the curative properties of water), February, 1855, 41.