They'd want to have sex, and contraception was unavailable or too expensive.

I don't know why, but quite a lot of men I know and even more that I read about seem to be obsessed with wanting kids more than any stereotypical chick brimming with estrogens would. They would totally divorce their wives if they hadn't given them children. I don't know how many of them dream of becoming a patriarch like them biblical people or something, but this is what it is /shrug

Why don't you ask a woman about that?

While you're at it, look up who invented the (manually powered) chainsaw in ~1785.