William Renton (1818-1891) was born in Nova Scotia and moved to Philadelphia as a young man. He first captained a ship in the 1840s and, over the years, purchased interests in ships that carried a variety of cargoes, including lumber, to various ports around the world. In 1850, Captain Renton and his family sailed on his first new brig the Mary & Jane to San Francisco, and this barometer was the instrument that safely brought them through the Strait of Magellan to their new home. Two years later, the Renton family moved up to Washington state where he entered into the logging industry and established the Port Blakely Mill Company in 1863. The mill continued to be a successful and lucrative endeavor until its closure in 1922.