Charles and Maria Ioas were born in Germany, on 23 March 1859 and 6 December 1865 respectively. Both acquired professions in the United States, Charles as a lawyer and certified public accountant, Maria as a photographer. They were living in Chicago in 1890’s. Charles had been born a Lutheran, Maria a Catholic, but in the United States both joined a Methodist church and "were continually seeking something else to satisfy their spiritual needs." Neither of them investigated any of America's "new" religions, for as Maria put it, "'My husband never cared for, as he called them, "isms" and cults ... .''' But the Ioases were interested in the subject of Christ's return, Charles having been told by his mother while yet a child that he would live to see Christ come again.
There were about one hundred Baha'is in Chicago in 1897. In August of that year Kheiralla began a Baha’i class, meeting twice a week which ended on 7 October. This class resulted in fifty-five more Chicagoans becoming Baha'is.
With time, so many people expressed interest in participating in such classes that Kheirallah had to dedicate more of his time and resources. After a while the pace of teaching became exhausting for him. In an essay written several years later he noted that for "nearly two years I used to teach classes, one after the other, from one o'clock P.M., to eleven and twelve P.M., and retired to my bed tired out and exhausted." Although classes met only one or two evenings per week, Kheiralla had a constant stream of visitors who wished to ask questions, of pupils who had missed a lesson and wished to make it up, of Baha'is dropping in to learn more or bringing friends who might be interested in taking the classes, of public lectures to give, and of dinner invitations to fill. Consequently, Kheiralla decided to authorize someone else to give his lessons. His choice was Paul K. Dealy.
With this appointment Kheiralla created a new institution in the American Baha'i community, that of "teacher." No training was given and no special authority was conferred, but a semiofficial position in the Faith was created, patterned after the system of Baha'i traveling teachers in the Middle East, or after the age-old system of any religious teacher's authorizing successors to continue his teachings. The continued growth of the Faith in Chicago in 1898 necessitated the effort of many more teachers. For example, Thornton Chase and others started offering classes for different areas of the city. Charles and Maria Ioas attended one of these classes which were provided by Paul K. Dealy.
The lands of origin of many of Dealy's students in 1898 were different from those of Kheiralla's earlier students. Up until 1897 most of the students had been born in the United States or Canada, generally between 1840 and 1875, when the two countries were still rural and settling new frontiers. In 1898 growing interest among recent immigrants diversified the group of people attracted to the Faith. Paul Dealy's fact-and-Bible-oriented style of teaching became appealing to some of them like Charles and Maria Ioas. After attending Baha'i classes given by Paul Dealy for several months, the Ioases became Baha'is in July 1898. The ten of their twelve children who lived to adulthood also accepted the Faith, including their son Leroy, who later became a Hand of the Cause of God. (Adapted from ‘The Baha’i Faith in America, vol. 1’ by Robert Stockman)