"Swede" The Legendary Lineman

One of the most harrowing jobs in the first part of the 20th century was that of the electric utility lineman. And one of the most colorful and heroic linemen in PSNH's early years was Theodore "Swede" Gustavson who worked for PSNH from 1927 to 1970.

Swede went to work in a machine shop at the age of fourteen. But the sight of linemen clinging to the tops of tall poles made the life of a machinist seem humdrum so he decided to become a lineman himself.

After getting a job driving a construction truck for PSNH, Swede bought himself a set of climbing irons and practiced climbing poles whenever he could. But when he applied for a job as a lineman he was turned down because he only weighed 120 pounds. Determined to prove himself, Swede kept after the supervisors at PSNH until they gave him a chance.

To be a lineman like Swede Gustavson required grueling, dangerous hours perched precariously on utility poles.

When Swede started as a lineman third class, his pay was $28.80 a week. The men had to buy their own tools and, being unable to afford rain gear, they worked in their ordinary overalls regardless of the weather. In December of 1929, Swede was sent to Laconia with a crew to repair damage caused by a severe ice storm. He worked daily from six a.m. to midnight. Having no way to dry his clothes in the hotel, he had to put on his wet clothes every morning for nine days.

Although called on for his skill and resourcefulness to do the most difficult and dangerous jobs, Swede had only one serious accident in his 43 years of climbing. It happened in 1942 when he was taking down the line on the top cross-arm of a forty-foot pole that snapped in half, dashing him to the ground. Swede's injuries included a broken pelvis, leg and back, a smashed foot and a compound fracture of a heel. He lay in a hospital bed, unable to move, for three months. Doctors told him his climbing days were over.

But the doctors failed to take into account Swede's dogged determination to spend his working days on top of a pole. After daily treatments, Swede dispensed with his crutches. While still barely able to walk, Swede filled in for a sick man and climbed his first pole after the accident.

One day, Swede was up a pole opposite his partner who was ramming bolts through a cross arm with a hammer. The partner missed one bolt and hit Swede in the lip with the hammer. After getting the lip sewn up, Swede was back on the job the next morning. He was called into the superintendent's office and asked if he would be willing to go to Portsmouth to fix a cable over the Piscataqua river. Someone had fired a gun at the cable and the bullet had struck the wire about four feet out from the insulator. To get to the damage in order to clamp the strands together, a twelve-foot ladder was chained to the top of the 225-foot tower. In a high wind, Swede climbed out on the ladder and installed the clamps.