Biography of Clarence A. Boswell, Bartow, Polk County, FL

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Transcribed from:  The History of Florida:  Past & Present, The Lewis Publishing Co., Vol. 
II, page 310, 1923.

BOSWELL, CLARENCE A., former county judge of Polk County, has been busily engaged in a 
successful practice of law and many public interests at Bartow for nearly thirty years.  
His partner in the law is SOLON G. WILSON.  They formed a partnership in 1898, and it is 
the oldest law firm in this section of the state.

Mr. BOSWELL was born in Lee County, Alabama, October 12, 1869, son of WILLIAM M. and ACHSAH 
E. (SCOTT) BOSWELL.  His father was born in Montgomery County, Alabama, son of Dr. THOMAS 
C. BOSWELL, a native of Alabama and for many years a practicing physician in Montgomery 
County.  The BOSWELLs are of an old English family.  WILLIAM M. BOSWELL was a teacher for 
many years, and for thirty years was a druggist and also a local Methodist preacher.  In 
1886 he moved with his family to Florida, locating at Lakeland, and was one of the earliest 
business men of that town.  He located here when there were only three store buildings.  
He did much to build up a sound educational policy for the new town, and served as a member 
of the board of both the town and county schools.  He died at the age of seventy-two.  His 
wife was born in Lee County, Alabama, of English and Scotch ancestry.  She died at Lakeland 
at the age of thirty-seven.  WILLIAM M. BOSWELL and wife reared four of five children, three 
daughters and two sons.

CLARENCE A. BOSWELL, oldest of the children, was about seventeen years old when he accompanied 
his parents to Florida.  He has attended high school in Alabama, and continued his education 
at Lakeland.  He studied law with the firm of Tucker and Tucker at Lakeland, and also took 
a course in law from Sprague Correspondence School of Law.  He was admitted to the bar in 
1897, and since December, 1896, his home has been at Bartow.  He was elected and served as 
mayor of Lakeland from 1894 to 1896.  He was a county judge of Polk County from 1897 to 1905, 
and since the latter year has been in private practice at Bartow.  However, for eight years 
he served as city attorney of Bartow.  Mr. BOSWELL has one of the finest and most complete 
law libraries south of Jacksonville, and owns probably the best private library in the state.

On September 22, 1897, he married Miss SUE H. HOOD, of Bartow, a native of South Carolina.  
Their oldest child, LOUIS TIFFIN, died at the age of two years,  They have three living 
children:  CLARENCE A., Jr., a student of law at the University of Virginia; MARTHA, born 
in 1909; and FRANCES, born in 1912.

Mr. BOSWELL has held all the chairs in the Masonic Lodge, some of the offices in the Royal 
Arch Chapter, and has filled all the offices in the Knights of Pythias Lodge and several 
times has been a representative to Grand Lodge.  He is active in the success of the democratic 
party, and has been chairman of the executive committee for six years.  He is member of 
the Board of Trade, and for twenty-five years has been a steward of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South.