Was there ever a time that tomato or potato was spelled with an e on the end?

The spelling "potatoe" was widely used in the 19th Century, but by the early 20th Century the spelling without the final 'e' had become widely accepted as the correct version for the singular of the Word (the plural is "potatoes"). In 1992, then-Vice President Dan Quayle read from a spelling bee answer card that erroneously gave the spelling as "potatoe". Quayle later said that he thought it was wrong at the time but read off the version that was written on the card given to him by an English teacher at the school. Being a Republican candidate in a national election campaign, he was mercilessly ridiculed by the media for the mistake. None of the children in the spelling bee had ever seen any spelling besides "potato."

Ironically, the alternate spelling "potatoe," while uncommon, was still used infrequently at that time. For example, the New York Times was still occasionally spelling potato with an -e as late as 1988. Spellings of "potatoe" can be found in the media all the way up to 15 June 1992, the date of the Quayle incident, at which point they suddenly stopped except when used in an ironic way.