His family were members of the Society of Friends and he grew up in Miami County, Ohio.

Together they had eight children: Lena, Josephine, Susan, Whittier, Eva, John Herbert and James.

On June 7, 1894, John DeBras Miles married Margarite Hedrick in Kansas City, Missouri.

On January 15, 1922 Margarite (Hedrick) Miles died at Sutherland Springs, Texas.

In 1868 President Ulysses S. Grant appointed John DeBras Miles agent of the Kickapoo people Agency in Atchison, Kansas.