Statewide County HI Archives Biographies.....Thurston, Lorrin A. July 31, 1858 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/hi/hifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: J. Orr jessicanorr@gmail.com January 10, 2012, 6:09 pm Source: The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders, Honolulu Star Bulletin, Ltd. Territory of Hawaii, 1925 Author: Edited by George F. Nellist LORRIN A. THURSTON, Lawyer and Publicist. Since the arrival of the first American missionaries in Hawaii the name of Thurston has been written on the pages of Hawaiian history. First of the Thurstons in Hawaii were the Rev. Asa Thurston and his wife, Lucy, who arrived on the brig “Thaddeus” in March, 1820, with the first missionary company sent to the islands from New England. A grandson of this missionary couple, Lorrin A. Thurston, president of the Advertiser Publishing Co., has dedicated a long and active career to the development of Hawaii’s political, industrial and cultural life. An enthusiast in many undertakings, Mr. Thurston’s endeavors in the main have been devoted to public service. To him Honolulu is indebted for its lighting system, developed by Mr. Thurston during the monarchy when he was minister of the interior. He was a pioneer promoter of the Honolulu Rapid Transit Co., Ltd., the Hawaii Consolidated Railroad Co., Ltd., on the island of Hawaii, and was instrumental in the organization of several of the early sugar plantations. Of great political importance was the part taken by Mr. Thurston during the critical period of Hawaiian history following the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani’s government to the time of annexation. Mr. Thurston has also been known as a brilliant lawyer, having followed his profession since 1878, and during the present century he has influenced public opinion through the columns of his newspaper. He has found time also to engage in a hobby of shell collecting. Born at Honolulu, July 31, 1858, Mr. Thurston is the son of the late Asa G. and Sarah (Andrews) Thurston. He received his early education at Oahu College, later studying law at Columbia University, N.Y., and was admitted to the bar of Hawaii in 1878. Before going to Columbia, where he studied for two years, Mr. Thurston was engaged as a plantation overseer and bookkeeper on the Wailuku Plantation, Island of Maui, from 1878 to 1880. Returning to Honolulu in 1881, he followed law practise for almost twenty years before entering the newspaper field. His political career dating from 1886, during the reign of King Kalakaua, Mr. Thurston was elected to the House of Representatives in that year and in 1887 was appointed minister of the interior, holding the latter post until 1890. He was elected to the House of Nobles in 1892. He also served on the Board of Health from 1887 to 1890 and was a member of the Immigration Board during the same period. When the revolution ended the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893, and Queen Liliuokalani was deposed, Mr. Thurston was made a member of the Advisory Council which framed the principles of the Provisional Government. On Jan. 18, 1893, assuming a leading role in the Americanization movement, he went to Washington, D.C., to confer with President Harrison as chairman of a commission to effect annexation to the United States. Holding the post of envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Washington from 1893 to 1895, Mr. Thurston assisted to a large extent in shaping the policies of the future government in Hawaii and paving the way for annexation. In 1894 he was minister plenipotentiary to Portugal. In 1895 he retired from office at Washington, President Cleveland having declined the annexation proposition. Upon the election of President McKinley, Mr. Thurston was again appointed an annexation commissioner, and was one of the Hawaii Commissioners under whom annexation was finally completed. When political order had been more or less restored in Hawaii toward the close of the last century, Mr. Thurston launched various promotion and development enterprises. He engaged in plantation and railroad development from 1899 to 1915, at the same time being publisher of the Honolulu Advertiser, having taken over that newspaper in 1900. He still continues as the executive head of the Advertiser Publishing Co., Ltd. Although practically retired from public life, Mr. Thurston continues to take an active interest in public movements, was the first president of the Board of Agriculture, 1904, and continued in that office in 1905 and 1906, and in 1915 served as a member of the Honolulu Water Commission. Mr. Thurston and Harriet Potter were married at St. Joseph, Mich., April 5, 1894. They have two children, Margaret Carter, wife of Twigg Smith, and Lorrin Potter Thurston. He also has a son, Robert S., by his first wife, Margaret C. Shipman. Robert and Lorrin are both employed by the Advertiser Co. Mr. Thurston served as a member of the Honolulu Rifles and Hawaiian Guard, 1877 to 1879, and is a member of the Hawaiian Volcano Research Association, and the Myrtle Boat, University, Commercial and Social Science Clubs. 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