Wow, that’s an entire history I know nothing about. Do you have a resource that I could check? I’d like to learn more.
In that vein I took a look at my home state, FL constitution. The pre-Reynolds constitution wasn't concerned with one man one vote. The basic political unit of the state was the county and each had at least one, but no more than three representatives. More populous counties had one senator and in rural areas, two contiguous counties got a single senator.
The constitutional emphasis was on limiting both taxes and legislative power to oppress.
Democracy be damned.