Re-Enactor of the Month

Photos by Jim & Kathy Cummings

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The Ratcatcher

Bill Smith
aka The Ratcatcher

By Kathy Cummings

When you mention the name Bill Smith not a lot of people recognize the name- but mention ``The Ratcatcher" and everyone smiles and knows immediately who you mean. Although he has been a re-enactor for many years Bill Smith decided that there had to be a way to have more fun at events.

 Thus the ratcatcher was born. Smith, of Springfield, Ohio, has worn many hats. He is a member of the George Rogers Clark Heritage Association and has been the treasurer of that organization for 12 years. Smith was chosen as the Fairmaster for the Fair at New Boston for both 2007 and 2008. The 2007 event was the 30th Anniversary of the event and one of the most successful ever.

It was at the Heritage Association one day looking at a ``period"  cage that the idea for Silas Moore took shape. Throw in a lot of research and the character that we see at events today was born. ``Actually though," says Bill. ``Silas was not my first choice for a name. Phineas was. But the first time I debuted him in a classroom and tried to introduce myself as Phineas my fake teeth landed on a student's desk in the first row and scared her half to death."

And Smith is perfectly at home in the classroom. He has retired from teaching after having taught and coached for 36 years. I asked how his family and former students react to Silas. Smith and his wife Karen have raised two sons and a daughter. They met in the classroom thirty years ago. As a young teacher Smith was supposed to chaperone a high school prom and found himself without a date. Someone suggested he ask the new student teacher - and the rest - as they say was history.

What gives Smith away to those who have never seen him dressed as the ratcatcher is his distinct voice. One former student athlete heard the ratcatcher speak and knew instantly that it was his former coach under the dirty clothes and bad teeth. ``Coach," he said, " I'd know that voice anywhere. After having heard you from the sidelines for all the years I was playing - you may look different - but the voice is the same."

The first time his granddaughter saw him - she was frightened. Now the entire family has grown use to the look. At some point you may see grandfather and granddaughter together (with the rat) as a ratcatcher and his apprentice.

Bill Smith at the 2005 Battle of Peckuwe

A rare site - the ratcatcher without his fake teeth.

At the 2007 Fair at New Boston Smith donned other period atire - to appear in a play, that was part of the fair. I admit that I walked right past him at first - being so used to seeing him as the ratcatcher. It took a bit of hunting to find other photos of Smith. But sure enough from the GRCHA's Battle of Peckuwe, there were photos of a different Bill Smith talking to the crowd.

But Smith admits playing Silas Moore is the most fun. He loves the interaction with the crowds - especially the children. And nothing is more fun than seeing him approach a well dressed lady at someplace like Locust Grove and  hearing a most ungentlemanly sound emit from his person. Only after a while do you realize that it wasn't flatulence but that the sound came from the little gizmo in his pocket.

Part of the fun comes from the spontaneity of re-enactors. Several years ago Silas Moore married Hester Purefinder the beggar woman at the Fair at New Boston. It drew quite a crowd. Never ones to let things get stale, Hester (Colleen Gilbert) and Silas (Smith) followed it up a year or so later with an improvised sketch on the front porch at Locust Grove during the fall 18th century Market Fair.

Dressed for a play at the 2007 Fair at New Boston

A well trained rat!

It's great fun to have someone like Hester to play off of admits Smith. Although Smith's wife travels with him to some events - you will rarely see them together. They don't want to ruin the impression of the ratcatcher by having him seen too often in the presence of a better dressed 18th century women.

But all joking aside Smith takes his role seriously. He trains his rats for a month or so before an event. He handles them frequently so that they will become used to people. You never know, he told me when a little child will surprise you and stick a finger right in the cage. It really helps to have a well trained rat!

``Getting hitched" at the Fair at New Boston in 2005 Click Here for more photos from ``the wedding."

Smith talks to the crowd at the GRCHA.

The ratcatcher at Locust Grove

Research for the ratcatcher showed that ratcatching was a popular occupation throughout history. One of the most famous was Jack Black -rat catcher and mole destroyer by  appointment to Her Majesty Queen Victoria during the middle of the Nineteenth  Century

Left -The Rat Catcher (1632) an etching by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669).