In 1910, seventeen-year-old Elias immigrated to America to find a job and send aid to his Lebanese village. Elias left Tripoli, Syria (later named Lebanon) with nothing but the clothes on his back and a bandoleer containing a coat and blanket slung over his shoulder.In New York City, Elias collapsed on a muddy street with influenza. A Presbyterian Mission doctor found his fevered body and used a chest tube to save his life.Later, a Greek Orthodox priest placed an addressed placard on father’s shirt and mailed him on a Union Pacific train to a Lebanese philanthropist in Omaha, Nebraska.In 1920, Elias sent for his sixteen-year-old cousin, Mary, and his twenty-year-old brother, George, to come to America.