Lorrin A. Thurston: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Lorrin Andrews Thurston (1858–1931), lawyer and publisher of the present-day Honolulu Advertiser. The son of missionaries in Hawai'i, Thurston led the Committee of Safety that overthrew Queen Lili'uokalani with the help of the United States Marine Corps in 1893. Thurston drafted 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 Honolulu Advertiser, he was a promoter of the tourist and pineapple industries. Though an enemy of the monarchy, Queen Lili'uokalani befriended Thurston and remained friends after annexation.

Thurston is credited with developing Hawaii's sugar canes and railroads and bringing the first electric street cars to Honolulu. He was also a volcano buff, 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. It is also thought that he was one of the first people to notice that the volcanic rock on one part of Maui was younger than the rest of the volcano and he is sometimes credited with the discovery that the previously described young rock was from the most recent eruption of Haleakala Volcano. He was friends with Thomas Jaggar and supported the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory during its early years.