William Nesbit lived with his wife Sarah and children on 10th Avenue in Altoona. He was president of the State Equal Rights League, which helped secure passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments. In his travels, he met leading black men of the time, including Frederick Douglass. Nesbit was a conductor on the Underground Railroad and argued against the idea that Liberia would be a good place for ex-slaves to settle, publishing Four Months in Liberia or African Colonization Exposed in 1855. From his 10th Avenue barber shop, which had a view of the railroad, he also helped secure the rights of blacks to enter railroad cars on equal footing with whites. Checkers tournaments were often held in his barber shop.