Moment in Time (July 22, 2021)

Seven best friends from the Class of 1922 from Grandview High School called themselves the “Pleiades”, or the Seven Sisters from Greek mythology.

The Grandview Heights/Marble Cliff Historical Society has over the years received a number of first-person narratives about life in the tri-village area. Two of these narratives were submitted by Dorothy Williams Pfeifer and Alleyne Higgs Jones. Their documents both described their relationship with a group of seven girls who were particularly close friends and classmates in the Grandview High School class of 1922. They referred to themselves as the “Pleiades,” a reference to a cluster of seven stars in the firmament named for seven mythological sisters. Each of the young women had a “star nickname” referring to the Seven Sisters of Greek mythology: Sterope, Merope, Electra, Maia, Taygeta, Celaeno, and Alcyone.  The girls are shown in the photo composition.

All indications suggest that the “Pleiades” were virtually inseparable. Excerpts from the 1922 Memory Book of Alleyne Higgs indicate that the girls regularly entertained at each other’s homes according to the genteel standards of the time. Beautifully preserved handwritten invitations, party favors, and thank you notes fill the pages of Alleyne’s Memory Book and scrapbooks. Gentility aside, one of the most notable accomplishments of the “Pleiades” is that six of the seven girls went on to receive college degrees.

There were 40 students in the class of 1922, and they were the last to graduate from the “Little Red School,” aka the Harding School, located on the east side of Fairview Avenue. Fourteen of the eighteen young women in the class went to college, a notable accomplishment given the culture, times, and expectations of most young women in 1922, when just receiving a high school diploma was considered a significant event. 

The “Seven Sisters” and their alma maters are (clockwise from top left): Virginia Hague (both she and her twin sister Dorothy were Ohio State University Home Economics majors); Marjorie Hammond (Oberlin College Arts major); Alleyne Higgs (OSU Arts major); Dorothy Williams (OSU Arts major); Edna Grubb (did not attend college); Dorothy Hague; and Esther Griffin (OSU Arts major).

The last two surviving girls both died in 2007. Dorothy Hague (Waring) was 102, and had previously taught school in Granville. Dorothy Williams (Pfeifer) was 101 at her death. An avid and lifelong OSU fan, the OSU Marching Band performed at her 100th birthday celebration.

Special thanks to Tom DeMaria for his contribution to this article.