Lorrin Andrews Thurston (1857–1931), was a lawyer born and raised in the
Kingdom of Hawai?i who published the
Pacific Commercial Advertiser (forerunner of the present-day
Honolulu Advertiser). The child of missionaries to Hawai
?i, Thurston played a prominent role in the revolution that transformed Hawai
?i from a monarchy into a sovereign constitutional republic.
As Interior Minister of the Kingdom of Hawai?i, Thurston authored the Bayonet Constitution of 1887 that effectively stripped the monarch King Kalakaua of all executive power and gave American and European immigrants the right to vote. Later, he led the self-titled Committee of Safety that overthrew Queen Lili?uokalani in 1893. Alleged involvement of the United States Marine Corps in the matter was apologized for a century later by the U.S. Congress in the controversial Apology Resolution of 1993. Thurston was involved with the drafting of the constitution for the Provisional Government of Hawai?i and headed the commission sent to Washington, DC to negotiate American annexation. He helped draft the constitution of the Republic of Hawai?i, 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.
Thurston is credited with developing Hawai?i'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 Kilauea 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 Hawai?i Volcanoes National Park is named after him.
Thurston's daughter Margaret was the mother of Thurston Twigg-Smith.
