What?? An iPhone, iPad, Android-phone or tablet and a solar charging system can provide plenty of internet surf time...
You just need a cell tower nearby and the iPad or tablet can work on the back 40 acres where the grid doesn't reach, if you bought the iPad or tablet that holds a SIM card for your local cell carrier.
No need to sit in the dark, plenty of "in-town" houses in Maine were plumbed for gas lighting, long before electricity came along. If Bret's home was a century old before knob and tube arrived, it probably still has plumbing for gas lighting in the ceilings.
I have to admit, when I think about houses from the 1800's, I expect it to be like Little House on the Prairie (set in the 1870s-1880s). My wife frequently reminds me one of the houses she used to live in was over 150 years old, and it was nothing like Little House on the Prairie. Many of the fixtures were simply "electrified" gas fixtures, some quite ornate, but probably not UL approved with little holographic stickers and country of origin details.
I have friends with some acreage outside Ely, MN with an off-grid home. I find them on the internet all the time!