8/17/2009:
In August of 1947, North Dakotans walking the streets of Devils Lake were treated to a curious sight. An elderly man rolled leisurely down the street in what appeared to be an oversized tricycle, as a vigilant patrol man watched his every move. The three-wheeled contraption had no pedals and operated instead on an electric motor, as its driver was missing both legs. On this date in 1947, the Grand Forks Herald reported that seventy-eight-year-old David C. Giles took his first driver's test to obtain an operating license for an electric-powered wheel chair. Reaching a top speed of 20 miles per hour, the tiny hand-operated vehicle was a far cry from an automobile. Yet, Giles was required to take examinations and pass a driver's test to legally operate the device: and he passed with flying colors.
Giles's chair was a fairly new idea for the time-so new that the laws did not yet differentiate between his pedestrian vehicle and a real automobile. It's no wonder. Giles's wheelchair was basically a small, open car complete with headlights, taillights, a parking brake, and forward and reverse gears. The first mainstream motorized wheelchair was not invented until the 1950s, when Canadian George Klein developed an electric wheelchair for the National Research Council of Canada. Klein's invention was developed to aid the many crippled WWII veterans who struggled to get by in everyday life when they returned from the war.
However, Giles lost his legs years before Klein's wheelchairs were readily available. It was not the War that crippled his legs, but a bitterly cold winter. While attending a rural school in Indiana, thirteen-year-old Giles was put in charge of tending the fires at the school house. One day, it was so cold that before he could get the fires started, his feet and legs froze and were permanently damaged.
Giles began suffering from complications with his legs when he moved to Devils Lake in 1939, and both legs had to be amputated: one in 1940 and the other in 1943. From that point on, Giles took up residence at the Good Samaritan home in Devils Lake, where he met Paul Rugroden, who was also unable to walk. Paul rode on a gasoline-powered scooter with hand-controls that allowed him to travel while standing up. If these men were still alive, they might be strolling the sidewalks of Devils Lake in the high-tech power chairs of today - no license required.
Dakota Datebook written by Carol Wilson
Sources:
Grand Forks Herald, August 17, 1947.
Mark Kearny and Randy Ray. What Ever Happened to...? Toronto: Hounslow, 2006.