As I suspected at first electors were chosen by State Government not by popular vote. When that changed in the early to mud 1800's it went to winner take all. There was NEVER a time when a majority of States did by district so Maine and Nebraska are actually odd men out.United States Electoral College - Wikipedia
from the article
from the article
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Electoral_College#cite_note-45In 1789, at-large popular vote, the winner-take-all method, began with Pennsylvania and Maryland; Virginia and Delaware used a district plan by popular vote, and in the five other states participating in the election (Connecticut, Georgia, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and South Carolina),[42] state legislatures chose. By 1800, Virginia and Rhode Island voted at-large, Kentucky, Maryland, and North Carolina voted popularly by district, and eleven states voted by state legislature. Beginning in 1804 there was a definite trend towards the winner-take-all system for statewide popular vote.[43]
By 1832, only South Carolina chose their electors this way, and it abandoned the method after 1860.[43] States using popular vote by district have included ten states from all regions of the country. By 1832, there was only Maryland, and from 1836 district plans fell out of use until the 20th century, though Michigan used a district plan for 1892 only.[44]
Since 1836, statewide winner-take-all popular voting for electors has been the almost universal practice. As of 2016, Maine (from 1972) and Nebraska (from 1996) use the district plan, with two at-large electors assigned to support the winner of the statewide popular vote.[45]