Belgium · Rochester · Syracuse

Mathilde Thielman & Camiel De Smet

Family ties, remarkable gardens and a flight with George Eastman

A young emigrant from Maldegem, an American woman with Van Landschoot ancestry, and a career in the gardens of Kodak’s founder: the story of Camiel and Mathilde connects a Flemish family history with life in Rochester and Syracuse.

From Maldegem to a family network in New York

Camiel De Smet was born in Maldegem, Belgium, on February 24, 1892, the son of Eduard De Smet and Melanie Mouton. He appears on the passenger list of the SS Kroonland at Ellis Island on July 18, 1911. His destination was the home of his brother-in-law, Jules Alliet in Irondequoit, New York. Camiel’s sister Emma had married Jules in Rochester on March 28, 1910. His arrival thus followed a family connection already established across the Atlantic.

On June 5, 1917, Camiel completed a draft registration card in Rochester. He lived at 20 Darrow Street and was described as short and slender, with blue eyes and brown hair. According to the supplied research, he had begun the process of becoming an American citizen. Registration alone does not establish military service, but his later obituary states that he served as a photographer with the Army Signal Corps during the First World War.

Mathilde and the Van Landschoot connection

Camiel married Mathilde Louise Thielman in Rochester on March 4, 1919. She had been born in Irondequoit on July 15, 1902. At the time of their marriage, Camiel worked as a florist and Mathilde worked at Kodak.

Mathilde was the daughter of Josephine Claeys and the granddaughter of Seraphina Van Landschoot. Through this maternal line, her family connects with the Van Landschoot genealogy. The lineage supplied with the research is shown alongside this account.

The 1930 census places Camiel and Mathilde at 12 Corona Road in Greece, Monroe County, with their daughters Jeannette and Betty. Camiel owned their home, valued at $7,500, and the household had a radio. His occupation was recorded as a gardener for a private family, a position identified in the supplied research as his employment with George Eastman.

In the service of George Eastman

Camiel’s work brought him into the household of George Eastman, the founder of Kodak. His obituary later described him as a head gardener and flower grower. A newspaper account of a shared flight reveals a different side of that employment: on this occasion, the gardener accompanied his employer into the skies above Rochester.

Eighteen minutes above the city

The account attributed to the Democrat and Chronicle of June 24, 1931 describes a flight piloted by Lieutenant George W. Goddard, an Army specialist in aerial photography. Eastman and De Smet were passengers in a Fairchild aircraft. Special permission was required to carry civilians, and both men signed a document releasing the government from responsibility in the event of an accident.

George Eastman Estate, Rochester, New York — AI-generated watercolour impression.

The flight took place in clear weather. Over the city centre, Eastman could view the new tower of Kodak’s State Street office building. The aircraft also passed over his East Avenue home and the University of Rochester campus. After eighteen minutes, they returned to the airfield. According to the report, De Smet subsequently drove Eastman back into the city.

The same account states that Camiel had studied aerial photography at the Eastman factory in Rochester during the war. It therefore presents him not only as a gardener, but also as someone with experience in photography.

A bequest of $2,000

Following Eastman’s death on March 14, 1932, the supplied research records a $2,000 bequest to Camiel under the date April 28, 1932. His name appeared among 26 employees assigned amounts ranging from $250 to $5,000. John McCleary, Salomon Jong and Nathaniel Myrick were also listed for $2,000 each.

For perspective, the bequest was approximately 27 per cent of the $7,500 value assigned to Camiel’s house in the 1930 census — slightly more than a quarter. This comparison indicates the scale of the sum; it is not a conversion into present-day purchasing power.

A new chapter in Syracuse

By the 1940 census, the family was living at 331 Green Street in Syracuse, with Jeannette and Betty still at home. Camiel’s 1969 obituary places the move to Syracuse roughly thirty years earlier.

A newspaper item dated August 31, 1941 identifies Camiel as head gardener for Flora Bernice Smith, associated with the L. C. Smith typewriter fortune. Its subject was an exceptional flowering of a night-blooming cereus in her greenhouse. The plant was said to be about forty years old. This small report offers a particularly vivid glimpse of the plants and specialist interests that formed part of Camiel’s working life.

The item describes him as a member of the National Gardeners Association and the Syracuse Men’s Garden Club, and as a flower judge at the National Flower Show in New York and the State Fair. His obituary also mentions employment with the Syracuse Parks Department and retirement about seven years before his death.

A family on both sides of the Atlantic

Camiel died in Syracuse in September 1969, aged 77. The supplied material gives conflicting dates: September 8 in the genealogical account and September 9 in the obituary transcription. He was buried on September 12, 1969, at Saint Marys Cemetery in DeWitt.

He was survived by his wife, two daughters, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. The obituary names the daughters as Mrs. Lawrence Fogarty and Mrs. William Tighe; the supplied account does not establish which married name belongs to Jeannette and which to Betty.

His surviving relatives also included his sister Malvina Flack in Irondequoit, his brothers Edmond and Bernard in Belgium, and his sister Alice Cools, also in Belgium. These names preserve the family’s connections across the Atlantic long after Camiel’s departure from Maldegem.

Mathilde died in Syracuse on February 3, 1994, aged 91. Their story brings together migration, the American descendants of the Van Landschoot family, the world of Kodak and Eastman, and a career devoted to horticulture.