After a stint in the Navy during World War II, Boswell attended Stanford University, earning a degree in economics.
Boswell used the company's influence to successfully lobby for advantageous land and water policies in the state,[2] including the construction of the Pine Flat Dam on the border of Kings Canyon National Park.
The dam stemmed water flow to Tulare Lake, the now dry bed of which is a central part of the company's land.
J. G. Boswell Co. voted to block the floodwater diversion so that its crops on the Buena Vista lakebed would not be destroyed.
Limiting suffrage to landowners violated the one man, one vote guarantee in the U.S. Constitution, they alleged, because the irrigation district can levy taxes, exercise eminent domain, and decide whose land gets flooded.