Sacramento County

Biographies

DAVID P. MILES

Although his commercial career has been comparatively brief, David P. Miles has registered achievement in varied lines of activity and now owns and operates the Nehi Bottling Works of Sacramento. He was born in Redding, California, June 25, 1895, and is a son of David and Eliza (Saxon) Miles. The father spent his early life in the east, coming to California from Pennsylvania as a young man and settling at Redding. He was a locomotive engineer and one of the first to run an engine on this division of the Southern Pacific Railroad. During the construction of the line he was in charge of engineering work in this section. During her girlhood Mrs. Miles made the overland journey to California in company with her parents and was married in Redding. She has long survived her husband, who passed away in 1898.

David P. Miles, the only son in a family of seven children, pursued his education in his native town until graduated from high school in 1913 and then enrolled as a student in the University of California, which he attended until his enlistment in the United States Army during the World war. He was on active duty in France for eight months and remained in the service for two years. At Washington, D.C., he received an honorable discharge and returned to Redding, where he engaged in the drug business soon afterward. Later he disposed of this and removed to San Francisco, where he turned his attention to the investment business. In 1929 he located to Sacramento, purchasing the bottling works at 2217 Y Street, where he has leased a two-story plant of brick construction, known as the Moose building. Thoroughly modern and sanitary, it is devoted to the manufacture of Nehi products, which he sells throughout the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys. Deliveries are made with trucks and steady employment is furnished to fifteen people. Mr. Miles has adopted for his slogan: “Drink Nehi,” and the beverages which he makes and sells may be had in all flavors, to suit every taste. Healthful and refreshing, the Nehi products are classed with the best soft drinks on the market and are steadily gaining in popularity.

Mr. Miles was united in marriage to Miss Mary St. Clair, a native of San Diego, California, and a son, David P., Jr., has been born to them. Mr. Miles belongs to the American Legion but has no club or fraternal connections, for he is domestic by nature, finding his greatest happiness in the society of his family. His favorite sports are hunting and fishing and, like most Californians, he is appreciative of the scenic beauty of the state, particularly enjoying the grandeur of the mountains. His salient characteristics as a business man are progressiveness, energy and forcefulness, and these traits, combined with his ability, sagacity and probity, have enabled him to win a gratifying success.

Transcribed by Debbie Walke Gramlick.

Source: Wooldridge, J.W. Major History of the Sacramento Valley California, Vol. 2 pgs. 361-362. The Pioneer Historical Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.

Sacramento County Biographies