Thurston was ordained deacon on June 20, 1894, by Bishop William Lawrence of Massachusetts, in St John's Memorial Chapel, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was then ordained priest on June 23, 1895, by Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple at St Paul's Church in St. Paul, Missouri.[2] He initially served as rector of St Paul's Church in Owatonna, Minnesota, until 1897 when he moved to Winona, Minnesota, to become rector of St Paul's Church. In 1903 he went to Minneapolis, becoming rector of St Paul's Church where he remained until 1911.[3]
Episcopacy
Thurston was elected Missionary Bishop of Eastern Oklahoma in 1910 and was consecrated on January 25, 1911, by Presiding Bishop Daniel S. Tuttle. He was the first and only Missionary Bishop of Eastern Oklahoma between 1911 and 1919. The District of Eastern Oklahoma was created on October 11, 1910, and reunited with the District of Oklahoma on October 10, 1919.[4] Upon reunification, Thurston became Missionary Bishop of the combined Eastern and Oklahoma District, while after 1928, the title was changed to Bishop of the Missionary District of Oklahoma. He was considered to be socially liberal and a low churchman like his predecessor. He retained the post until his resignation on October 15, 1926, due to an increasing poor health.
Family
Thurston married Jane Mitchell on September 21, 1904, but she died eight months later on May 14, 1905. On June 8, 1920, he married Daisy Dean Carroll in St Paul's Cathedral. [5] Daisy was previously married to Milton Hamlin Speer who died in 1906. She died March 23, 1968.
