Aley Slagle Monnett was born on March 1, 1788 to Jacob and Hannah (Burrell) Slagle of Hampshire County (West) Virginia. Her father was a large scale farmer of German descent and her mother of English descent. Theirs was a Roman Catholic home.

In 1804 Jeremiah Crabb Monnett, a native of Hampshire County who had followed his parents and family west to the Ohio in 1800, returned to Virginia, as he wrote, "to claim who I left behind." Upon his return, he proposed to Aley and the two were wed. "With galdful heart (I) adopted the Methodist faith," and did so with the full support of her parents.

Eventually, her husband decided to return to Ohio, and Aley went with him, both walking beside their wagon, which carried their possessions and young children. The youngest of the children, Elsie was carried much of the time by her mother. Along the way, she used a large glass jar to churn the milk from the family cow. The rough roads and trails and movement of the wagon were enough to provide the action necessary to make butter for meals.

Sixteen children were born to the couple: Jacob, Isaac, Thomas, Abraham, Elsie were born in Virginia, and Margaret, Hannah, Ann, John, Jeremiah, Mary, Thomas Jefferson, Martha and Nancy were born in Ohio. Two boys that died shortly after birth were unnamed. Aside from the two male infants, all but two of their children lived to adulthood – daughter Ann dying before her tenth birthday, and the eldest son Thomas, dying at age 15.

Returning to southern Pickaway, they built a substantial brick home that stood on the top of a knob overlooking the Kinnikinnick Prairie and the Ross County, Pickaway County border. The couple also released their slaves, a gift from the bride's father, that had come with them from Virginia. The couple provided land that the families could farm, if they stayed near the Monnett's.*

In 1835 she again left behind her home and followed her husband, and most of her children and grandchildren to resettle in Crawford County Ohio. There, her husband was charged with establishing and serving four Methodist Episcopal congregations. Her business acumen is well documented, and the couple's financial security was due in large part to her careful eye and precise accounting. The site of their white washed home was later marked with a plaque in 1935.

Aley Monnett survived her husband by four years and died in 1868. She is buried beside her husband in the graveyard behind Monnett Chapel.

NOTE: Various sources list her name in a variety of spellings - from Aley to Elsie to Alis to Alice, etc., however, most sources rely upon Aley as her given name.