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 (Sacon) 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 in 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 truck
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 Priscilla Delventhal.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History
of Sacramento County, California With Biographical
Sketches, Pages 1001-1002. Historic
Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 P. J. Delventhal.