Erasmus M. Smithers (February 17, 1830 – November 20, 1905) was one of the European pioneers of the Pacific coast and the founder of the city of Renton, King County, Washington.

His father, Samuel Smithers, a farmer, was born in Virginia, and married a Miss Hale, also a member of one of the old families of that state.

15 miles (24 km) west of Omaha, Nebraska, a large band of Indians met them at a bridge and demanded a payment of one dollar a wagon before they passed on, but the settlers were able to fight them off.

He brought with him from Portland three yoke of cattle and hauled logs to build the Fort Madison, Washington mill.

Diana and Henry had married in Lincoln, Maine in March 1851, and had been the first settlers of the Renton area in 1853, where they had built a timber mill in 1854.

The Smithers built a small home, where they lived initially and where their children, Ada (1858), Edwin M. (1862), and Fred G. (1866), were born.