Bachelor Farmers of the American and Canadian Midwest

In doing some genealogy research, I discovered that many of the extended relations in my family were bachelor farmers. In many cases it doesn't seem like this was due to a lack of marriageable women in the area, but rather a personal choice.

These were men who and chose not to marry in a time (the 18-1900's) when most men would have. They were not single immigrants. They simply did not marry or live with anyone at all for the duration of their lives.

(Only one seems to have been a possible homosexual, as he is listed as living with another male "friend" for his entire life, and one had a fiancee die shortly before they wed and seemed to choose the single life out of grief)

This got me wondering about bachelor farmers and I'd like to learn more about why these men remained single, and why it seems to have been a relatively common occurrence. Why would they choose to live like this? It seems like a very lonely existence.