The town of Epsom voted in 1778 to lay out two roads from Short Falls, one to Allenstown (River Road) and one, including a bridge, near the short falls (Short Falls Road). River Road would be populated primarily by Bickfords, and the Short Falls Road by Tripps. Short Falls was a close knit community and had a country store, creamery, function hall, railroad, grist mill, school, cemetery, blacksmith and shoe shops. The opportunities for employment saw the number of houses increase over the years, but many of them began to disappear after 1900. The area included parts of lot No. 7 in the second division owned by Thomas Critchett, and from the third range, lots 83 to 74. One of the earliest settlers was Nathaniel Kinneson at the four corners.