History :

Maine began as a province of Massachusetts. At the time when our American independence was declared, northern Massachusetts was sparsely settled. The wild inhabitants-Indians and bears-and a lack of transportation both contributed greatly to preventing the settling of the province of Maine.

In the middle half of the eighteenth century, it became popular for the State of Massachusetts to pay off debts for military and other services by granting large lots of wild land.

It was voted that Capt. William Raymont and the company of men who had been under him in the failed expedition of 1690 to destroy the French citadel of Quebec, should be granted land. The expedition had been futile, but the result was the granting of a township to survivors or decedents of the men who had gone on this expedition.

The first attempt to grant land did not work out: it would have been what is today the area of Weare, NH, and the second attempt did not come until 25 years later. The original soldiers were long gone but their heirs were still eligible and land in Maine was plentiful.

On January 30, 1767 a suitable grant was settled upon and "a township of land 6 miles and 3/4's of a mile square was granted to Capt. William Raymont and others who served in the expedition against Canada in 1690, their legal Representatives or assigns and by them laid out in the County of Cumberland adjoining to Great Sebago Pond, and adjoining to New Marblehead..." This grant of land included all that is now Raymond and Casco, plus part of Naples, and was called Raymondtown, in honor of Capt. William Raymont.

On June 20, 1803, Raymondtown became incorporated within Massachusetts as the Town of Raymond, with its own local government, and in 1820, Maine became a State. We were not to become "Casco" until 1841 and it took two petitions to the Maine Legislature to secure the separation from Raymond.

Casco was officially incorporated on March 18, 1841. Casco was the last town incorporated in Cumberland County and is the smallest consisting of 32 square miles of land and 6 square miles of water.

This is a brief summary taken from the first chapter of THE HISTORY OF CASCO, MAINE, written by Melissa J. Kluge for Casco's Sesquicentennial Birthday in 1991. For more information or your own copy of this history book visit the Casco Public Library, where they are still for sale.