Nesser Brothers

The Nesser Brothers were a group of football playing brothers who helped make up the most famous football family in the United States from 1907 until the mid-1920s. The group consisted of seven brothers who worked for Panhandle Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad in Columbus, Ohio, and who were later used as the foundation for the Columbus Panhandles of the "Ohio League", and later the National Football League, when the club was founded by future NFL-President Joe Carr in 1907.

The brothers' father, Theodore, was born on January 20, 1850, in a small town in Germany called Kirsch, near Trier, Alsace-Lorraine, which was the border region between Germany and France. He eventually got a job with the German railroad as an apprentice boilermaker. Soon afterwards the German government, which operated and controlled all the railroads, sent him to Metz, where he worked for twelve years as a boilermaker.

In 1870, at the age of twenty, he fought with the German army in the Franco-Prussian War although he did not care for the fighting. (He lost part of his left hand ring finger when he was shot in the war). After the war, around 1873, Theodore met Katerina Steinbach (born Feb 22, 1854 in Baden, Germany), and the following year the two were married and wasted no time in creating a large family. the couple eventually had twelve children:

1. John Nesser: Born April 25, 1875 in Triere, Germany and died August 1, 1931, in Columubus, Ohio.
2. Anna Kathryn Nesser: b. April 17, 1876 in Triere, Germany and died January 11, 1949, in Columbus, Ohio.
3. John Peter Nesser: b. October 22, 1877 in Triere, Germany and died May 29, 1954, in Columbus, Ohio.
4. Ermina Nesser: b. May 5, 1879 in Triere, Germany and died June 24, 1910, in Columbus, Ohio.
5. Philipp Gregory Nesser: b. December 10, 1880 in Triere, Germany and died May 9, 1959, in Columbus, Ohio.
6. Theodore H. (Ted) Nesser: b. April 8, 1883 in Dennison, Ohio, and died June 7, 1941, in Columbus, Ohio.
7. Mary Catherine Nesser: b. May 27, 1885 in Delaware, Ohio, and died May 10, 1900, in Columbus, Ohio.
8. Frederick William Nesser: b. September 10, 1887 in Columbus, Ohio, and died July 2, 1967, in Columbus, Ohio.
9. Francis Raymond (Frank) Nesser: b. June 3, 1889 in Columbus, Ohio, and died January 1, 1953, in Columbus, Ohio.
10. Mary Rose Nesser: b. May 7, 1891 in Columbus, Ohio, and died December 17, 1959, in Columbus, Ohio.
11. Alfred Louis Nesser: b. June 6, 1893 in Columbus, Ohio, and died March 11, 1967, in Columbus, Ohio.
12. Raymond Joseph Nesser: b. March 22, 1898 in Columbus, Ohio, and died September 2, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio.

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