John Nagel was born in Germany, July 6, 1865, and in 1880 came to the United States. Upon landing at New York, the Nagel family at once proceeded to the west, locating in Winnemucca, Nevada. About 1881 he embarked in business at Battle Mountain, Nevada where he became a partner in a soda water factory. A year later, however, he sold out and subsequently spent five years at Baker City, Oregon, going there in 1888. In 1893, he came to Boise and purchased a soda water factory (Soda Water Company of Ada County), which had been established in 1875 by Charles Leyerzapf, and changed the name to Nagel's Soda Water Manufacturing Company. The factory was a substantial brick structure which was erected in 1897.