Anna Catherine Trinkle was born on October 9, 1843, in Indiana. By 1850, she and her siblings were living with William and Anna Rutherford on their farm in Posey, Indiana. She married Elisha P. Lee on March 20, 1862, and they had at least ten children: John, born around 1864; Delilah, born around 1866; Alonzo, born around 1868; Robert, born around 1870; Louisa, born around 1871; Minnie, born around 1872; Mittie, born around 1872; Charles, born around 1874; Bruce, born around 1877; and Lillie, born around 1879.
They lived in Howard, Indiana, and her husband worked as a farm laborer. By 1870, they owned $300 of personal property. They moved to Washington, Indiana, in the 1870s. She and her husband may have separated in the late 1800s, and by 1900, she was living with her son John in Howard. She was admitted to St. Edward Hospital in New Albany, Indiana, in the early 1900s, and she died there of rheumatism on November 6, 1913.