A Time Line: 70 Years of Asplundh People, Resources and Service
If you are a newcomer to Asplundh, this time line will give you a brief summary of the major events that shaped the company's history. For those of you who have been a part of Asplundh for several years, we hope this time line will refresh your memory, stir up that "orange blood," and instill some pride in our company's record of growth and innovation. If you want a much more detailed picture of the company's early days, contact the Corporate Communications Department in Willow Grove for a copy of the 50th Anniversary Issue of The Asplundh TREE. It's a fascinating read and provides interesting historical background on the line clearance industry in America.
Family Origins
Carl Hjalmar Asplundh left his native Sweden in 1882 and came to work as an accountant in Philadelphia. Here he met Emma Steiger, who had recently emigrated from Switzerland, and after getting married, they settled in nearby Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania to raise a family. In 1903, Carl died suddenly, leaving Emma with a family of eight children to raise. The youngest son was also named Carl Hjalmar and 25 years later, he would join with his brothers Griffith and Lester to form the Asplundh Tree Expert Company. But the family's connection to trees began long before that. In fact, the name Asplundh refers to "grove of aspen trees" in Swedish. To help support his widowed mother and siblings, the second oldest son, Oswald, took up work as a gardener and later founded a landscaping and tree surgery business. It was here that the three younger brothers earned money for their college educations by trimming trees under the guidance of Oswald.
August 28, 1928
The Asplundh Tree Expert Co. is founded when Griffith, Lester and Carl combine their educations and experience in arboriculture, electrical engineering and finance. Early on they decide to specialize in trimming trees around power and telephone lines. Some said this decision would limit the company's potential growth. However, this decision combined with their personal talents, a sound investment strategy, and an ever-expanding utility industry to drive the corporation's dramatic growth and success over the next 70 years.
1929
Equipped with secondhand stake-body trucks, axes, cross-cut saws, ropes and ladders, the first Asplundh crews are hard at work on the properties of Philadelphia Electric Co. (now PECO Energy), Public Service Electric & Gas Co., Jersey Central Power & Light Co. (now GPU Energy of New Jersey), Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. and American Telephone & Telegraph. To stay ahead of the competition, Asplundh initiates training schools to develop a corps of tree trimmers educated in line clearance methods and proper pruning techniques. Training schools would prove to be critical to the company's survival during the ensuing Great Depression when many tree companies folded and Asplundh absorbed inexperienced or poorly trained tree workers.
1932
In the depths of the Great Depression, the three brothers do without salaries in order to keep the business afloat and the crews working. However, by 1934 new contracts were being established and Asplundh's new growth warrants a move to larger quarters in nearby Jenkintown which had room for a tool repair shop, as well as more office space.
1936
Oswald Asplundh leaves his nursery business to join his brothers' enterprise. He leads the expansion of operations further into the Midwest. A new era in the line clearance industry begins with the invention of the power saw. The first gasoline powered saws are bulky and require two men to operate them, but Asplundh crews step up their productivity through the use of them.
1939
In the late 1930s, storm emergency work plays a part in the company's continued growth. Utilities eagerly hire Asplundh tree crews who are trained to work around hot wires. Continued growth makes it necessary to move the offices once again, this time to 505 Old York Road, Jenkintown, Pennsylvania where headquarters would remain for the next 35 years.
1940
To boost morale and improve communications, the first issue of The Asplundh TREE is mimeographed and distributed to our crews who can be found working throughout the Middle Atlantic states, into the Midwest, as far south as Georgia and the Carolinas and westward into Texas and New Mexico.
1941-1945
World War II rationing makes it difficult to acquire fuel, tools and supplies. But more importantly, hundreds of experienced tree workers leave for military service overseas. One result of the war was the development of herbicides and with this new technology, Asplundh begins to diversify by offering utilities 'chemical brush control' for their rights-of-way.
1948
Asplundh's equipment specialists address the problem of brush disposal by manufacturing the first Asplundh chipper prototypes—a truck-mounted version and the more popular trailer model. Field testing begins the following year.
On Christmas Eve, our first president and a founder of the company Griffith Asplundh dies. In January 1949, Lester is elected president.
1949
Asplundh's Equipment Department moves into the Philmont Shop in nearby Huntingdon Valley which has more room for assembling chippers and maintaining or rebuilding vehicles and saws.
Office automation begins with the installation of primitive IBM computers to make payroll and billing procedures quicker and less labor intensive.
1950s
Seven sons of Griffith, Lester and Carl, the second generation, start to 'learn the ropes' by working in the field and home office. During this decade Asplundh's growth accelerates, spreading operations throughout New England and later into Florida and the Pacific Northwest.
1952
A severe respiratory ailment sidelines Lester and he steps down as president. Carl is elected to fill the vacancy.
Asplundh joins a research project in central Pennsylvania to validate the safe use of herbicides. Our spray crews still participate in this project with continuing benefits to the utility vegetation management industry.
1953
The first supervisory training schools begin. Now held several times each year, the Asplundh Supervisory Training Program provides technical and professional development for our general foremen.
1954
A formalized storm emergency procedure for Asplundh crews and customers is written and distributed in the wake of Hurricanes Carol and Hazel.
1956
A subsidiary company—Asplundh Brush Control Co.—is formed to specialize in utility right-of-way clearing and maintenance.
1958
Always searching for a faster, easier way to get up into the trees, Asplundh had tried many ideas including a hand-cranked platform in 1929, wooden ladders mounted on a revolving turret in the early 1950s, and the first hydraulically-powered (but poorly insulated) lift trucks in the mid-1950s.
A real solution comes along when Lester combines his engineering talent with a new spun-glass fiber and epoxy resin material called 'spiralloy' or fiberglass. Its strength and insulating qualities make for a perfect lift boom, so the first Asplundh lifts with fiberglass booms roll off the assembly line in 1958. They soon become an industry standard. Land and a small plant in Chalfont, Pennsylvania are purchased to house lift manufacturing operations. This eventually becomes the Asplundh Manufacturing Division.
Branching out into new services, Asplundh offers treatment with preservatives and reinforcement techniques to extend the service life of wooden utility poles.
1960
Further diversification occurs when Asplundh introduces underground utility construction and related services to electric and telephone companies in the Southeast and Middle Atlantic states.
1967
On July 2, Carl Asplundh dies suddenly. Lester is elected president and chairman of the board temporarily.
Asplundh pioneers commercial thermographic/infrared inspection services. The Infrared Services Division helps utilities avoid serious equipment failures and power outages by detecting overheated circuits and parts.

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