Later in 1893, the widower Nathan at age 54 married 28-year-old Nina Elizabeth Pinchback, a wealthy young woman of color. She was born in New Orleans as the third child of people of color who had been free before the Civil War. Her father, P. B. S. Pinchback, was of majority European heritage, from several nationalities, and also of African and Cherokee descent. Born free in Mississippi, he was raised by his white planter father. After his father's death in 1848, he and his mother moved to the free state of Ohio. Pinchback served as an officer in the Union Army in Louisiana.