Lorrin A. Thurston

Lorrin Andrews Thurston (1858?1931), was a Caucasian lawyer who lived in the Kingdom of Hawaii and published the Pacific Commercial Advertiser (forerunner of the present-day Honolulu Advertiser). The child of missionaries to Hawaii, Thurston played a prominent role in the transformation of Hawaii from a sovereign constitutional monarchy into a territory of the United States.

Related Topics:
1858 - 1931 - Kingdom of Hawaii - Honolulu Advertiser

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As Interior Minister of the Kingdom of Hawaii, Thurston authored the Bayonet Constitution of 1887 that effectively stripped the monarch of all executive power and gave white American and European immigrants the right to vote. Later, he led the self-titled Committee of Safety that overthrew Queen Liliʻuokalani with the help of the United States Marine Corps in 1893, an action that was apologized for a century later by the U.S. Congress in the Apology Resolution of 1993. Thurston drafted the constitution for the Provisional Government of Hawaii and headed the commission sent to Washington, DC to negotiate American annexation. He helped draft the constitution of the Republic of Hawaii, and after annexation retired to private life. As principal owner and editor of the Advertiser, he was a promoter of the tourist and pineapple industries. His fortunes rose considerably as a result of the Islands' annexation by the United States.

Related Topics:
Kingdom of Hawaii - Bayonet Constitution - Committee of Safety - Queen Liliʻuokalani - United States Marine Corps - 1893 - U.S. Congress - Apology Resolution - Provisional Government of Hawaii - Washington, DC - Republic of Hawaii

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Thurston is credited with developing Hawaiʻi's sugar cane plantations and railroads and bringing the first electric street cars to Honolulu. He was also a volcano enthusiast, building the Volcano House (today a hotel at the rim of Kīlauea volcano's summit caldera) and bringing officials and delegations from the United States to see the volcano. He was friends with Thomas Jaggar and supported the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory during its early years. The Thurston lava tube in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park is named after him.

Related Topics:
Honolulu - Thomas Jaggar - Hawaiian Volcano Observatory - Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park

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Thurston's daughter Margaret was the mother of Thurston Twigg-Smith.

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