During the time of the Irish Potato Famine, Seton sent sacks of meal and flour and potatoes and barrels of apples from the estate to a relief ship loading in New York Harbor. William and Emily Seton had six children, who had left the estate by 1860. For the next several decades, Cragdon was rented out, but not permanently occupied, and was affected by theft and vandalism. The land had been replanted with oak and elm trees by 1905. Seton's mill was destroyed in a 1900 storm, but the waterfall remained. The cascade was described as a descent with two separate falls.