Before 1850 his parents moved the family from Kentucky to the Colony of St. Mary's, a community of German Catholic settlers[2] in Benzinger Township, Elk County, Pennsylvania.

Their nine children were born in Pittsburgh: Michael, Mary Margaret and Barbara (who both died in early childhood), George, Jacob, John, Aloysius, Joseph and Anna.

[3] When that company was destroyed in the Great Seattle Fire on June 6, 1889, Nist and his son Michael launched Queen City Box Manufacturing next to his home on the Northeast corner of Thomas and Rollin, which later became Westlake Avenue North.

After the death of his wife Mary Ann on November 11, 1897, Nist married Josephine Webber Clavadetscher on August 22, 1900, and his youngest daughter Catherine was born in 1902.

Nist is buried between his wives, Mary on his left and Josephine on his right, as inscribed on the tombstone at Calvary Cemetery in the Ravenna neighborhood of Seattle, Washington.