Lorrin Andrews Thurston | |
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Lorrin Andrews Thurston
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Born |
Honolulu, Kingdom of Hawaii |
July 31, 1858
Died | May 11, 1931 Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii (now Hawaii) |
(aged 72)
Nationality |
Kingdom of Hawaii United States |
Occupation | Lawyer, Politician, Businessman |
Spouse(s) | Margaret Clarissa Shipman Harriet Potter |
Children | Robert Shipman Thurston Margaret Carter Thurston Lorrin Potter Thurston |
Parent(s) | Asa Goodale Thurston Sarah Andrews |
Signature | |
Lorrin Andrews Thurston (July 31, 1858 – May 11, 1931) was a lawyer, politician, and businessman born and raised in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. The grandson of two of the first Christian missionaries to Hawaii, Thurston played a prominent role in the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom that replaced Queen Liliʻuokalani with the Republic of Hawaii, dominated by American interests. He published the Pacific Commercial Advertiser (a forerunner of the present-day Honolulu Star-Advertiser), and owned other enterprises. From 1906 to 1916 he and friends lobbied with national politicians to create a National Park to preserve the Hawaiian Volcanoes.
He was born on July 31, 1858 in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father was Asa Goodale Thurston and mother Sarah Andrews. On his father's side he was grandson of Asa and Lucy Goodale Thurston, who were in the first company of American Christian Missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands in 1820. On his mother's side, he was also the grandson of another early missionary, Lorrin Andrews. His father was speaker of the house of representatives of the Kingdom of Hawaii but died when Lorrin was only a year and a half old in December 1859. He then moved to Maui with his mother.
He was fluent in the Hawaiian language and gave himself the Hawaiian nickname Kakina. In 1872, he attended Punahou School, then known as Oahu College, where he played baseball with the sons of Alexander Cartwright (who invented the modern game). He was expelled shortly before graduation. After working as a translator for a law firm and clerk at the Wailuku Sugar Company, he attended law school at Columbia University. He returned to Honolulu in 1881 and became partners in a law firm with William Owen Smith.