COLUMN: Carillon Flashback Aug. 2, 1963 – Man who cannot move has built his own car

One of the more interesting floats in the 1963 Hanover Fair parade was a full-sized replica of a 1905 Model ‘N’ Ford car. The prize winning antique auto was the only float in the parade built by a man who cannot walk a step or lift a finger.

The old car’s architect and builder by proxy is Peter J. Toews, a man of stronger than average mechanical inclination with no direct means of putting his ideas into concrete form. Toews has been a victim of multiple sclerosis for the past 23 years, and has not walked for 12 years and has not been able to move a hand even to feed himself for three years.

In spite of what is generally considered a crushing affliction, Toews has discovered an effective defense against the murderous blows of frustration. He learned several years ago that he has a rare gift of interpreting his own mechanical ideas and aspirations to other people in terms they can understand. His creeping paralysis has left his higher faculties unaffected and his thinking crystal clear. His eyesight is 100 percent and he hears acutely and speaks lucidly.

Working at first with members of his own family and later with neighbourhood boys, he has from his wheelchair built a house, a motorized wheel chair, an electronically-operated invalid road car, numerous mechanical household timesavers and now this replica of a 1905 car.

Toews has found ‘borrowed hands’ need only belong to a person who can follow instructions implicitly. To help him build his latest achievement, he employed the services of 12-year-old Paul Peters who also had the job of driving the Model ‘N’ Ford in the Hanover Fair parade.

The car, although not an exact replica in every detail, probably is close enough to the real thing to fool even Henry Ford, if he stood back a few feet. Wheels and undercarriage are from a Model ‘T’ Ford and other parts were machined right in Toews’ own garage under his instructions by the boys who worked on the car. His present assistant is 13-year-old Cornie Martens. Others who have helped in the past are Johnny Doerksen and David Wiens. But he says his biggest helper of all is his wife. When he needed someone to paint the car, she was the one who did it.

The car was completed over a period of about three full working months over two years and cost about $300 to $400 to build. The money to finance the project came from Toews’ relatives in Canada and the United States.

Peter Toews is a born mechanic. He grew up on a farm with a machine shop where his father built his own farm machinery parts. While still in grade school, Toews and his brothers built model tractors and threshing machines that really worked. He operated his own machine shop at Homewood for three years and over the years has been a farmer, a carpenter, a barber and as a hobby, a taxidermist.

Prior to building the car, Toews made a collection of small replicas illustrating the history of travel from the ox cart on. To Toews, the completion of the car meant the realization of a long cherished dream. But it was more than that, he says.

“I think it shows that just because a person has a disability, it doesn’t mean that he has to lie down and die.”

For daily inspiration Toews turns back to a very old formula by quoting a verse from the Psalms, “This is the day the Lord hath made. I will rejoice and be glad therein.”