
'Lorrin A. Thurston' led the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893. He appointed Sanford B. Dole to the office of president of the Republic of Hawaii.
'Lorrin Andrews Thurston' (
1857–
1931), was a lawyer born and raised in the
Kingdom of Hawaii who 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 revolution that transformed Hawaii from a monarchy into a soverign constitutional republic.
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 American and European immigrants the right to vote. Later, he led the self-titled
Committee of Safety that overthrew
Queen Liliuokalani 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 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.
Thurston is credited with developing Hawaii'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
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is named after him.
Thurston's daughter Margaret was the mother of
Thurston Twigg-Smith.