They were also second cousins, twice removed (see below), of the poet and short story writer Edgar Allan Poe, who died in 1849.

Poe played better in his sophomore year than in the previous season, finishing second on the team for touchdowns scored.

"[7] In 1914, a Pittsburgh Press article declared the last-minute winning field goal "Football's Greatest Moment".

[9] Three of the Poe Brothers fought for the Allied Powers during World War I. Neilson served in the United States Army infantry as a lieutenant.

In 1914 he volunteered for the British Army and was assigned to the Royal Garrison Artillery, in which he served in France for the remainder of 1914 and the first part of 1915.

He then decided that artillery was too far behind the lines, and had himself transferred to the Black Watch, a famous Scottish infantry regiment, known to the Germans as the "Ladies from Hell" for the kilts they wore and their ferocity.

Meanwhile, Edgar Allen's son, who was also a recent Princeton graduate, Edgar Allan Poe, Jr., was severely wounded in the war while serving as a U.S. Marine Corps second lieutenant in France; however, according to an October 13, 1918, New York Times story, he fully recovered from his wounds within six days.

Through much of his adulthood, the author lived in close contact with his second cousin Neilson, the Poe brothers' grandfather.