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By 1898 Mrs. Phoebe Hearst, the well- known philanthropist (wife of Senator George F. Hearst), whom Mrs. Getsinger had, while on a visit to California, attracted to the Faith, had expressed her intention of visiting Abdu'l- Baha in the Holy Land, had invited several believers, among them Dr. and Mrs. Getsinger, Dr. Khayru'llah and his wife, to join her, and had completed the necessary arrangements for their historic pilgrimage to Akka. In Paris several resident Americans, among whom were May Ellis Bolles, whom Mrs. Getsinger had won over to the Faith, Miss Pearson, and Ann Apperson, both nieces of Mrs. Hearst, with Mrs. Thornburgh and her daughter, were added to the party, the number of which was later swelled in Egypt by the addition of Dr. Khayru'llah's daughters and their grand- mother whom he had recently converted.
(257:1)
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