100 Years of Boswell

Company yard, 1940

brought fresh ideas to the table, helping to refine farming techniques and improve crop rotation for even better harvests.

In 1952, Colonel JG became gravely ill. Upon his instructions, the board named JG Boswell II (JG II) as president of the company. Colonel JG’s wife, Ruth Chandler Boswell, was appointed chair of the board. Shortly thereafter, the Colonel passed. It is said that when he died, the company’s board declared that Colonel JG was “responsible for as much as, if not more than, any single individual for the establishment of the cotton industry in the Pacific Southwest.” In 1948, at his father’s request, JG II had joined the family business in Arizona. Over the next thirty-two years as president, he would be credited with the company’s significant growth, transforming the family business founded by the three Boswell brothers into the country’s largest cotton producer. Under JG II’s leadership, J. G. Boswell continued to grow, expanding its land, building new gins, and producing more cotton than ever before. But with that growth came challenges, including the valley’s unpredictable water. Floods, both big and small, had always been a part of life here, and 1952 brought one of the toughest yet. Water has a way of following its own path, but the company took steps to manage it, working to minimize its impact. The completion of Pine Flat Dam in 1954 was a game-changer, and as more dams followed, the ability to store and release water in a controlled way not only helped prevent devastation but also made it easier to put that water to good use.

100 Years of Boswell

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