Born in Belleville, St. Clair County, Illinois, Nesbit attended the grade and night schools.

He held various offices in the United Mine Workers of America, serving as subdistrict secretary from 1912 to 1915, as traveling auditor from 1915 to 1917, and as secretary-treasurer of district No.

Nesbit was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-third Congress (March 4, 1933 – January 3, 1935).

He was an unsuccessful candidate for sheriff of St. Clair County, Illinois, in 1938.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress