BY EDWARD D. MURPHY

MaineToday Media, Inc.

Scarborough is now an affluent suburb of Portland, but there have been times when residents struggled.

During the Depression, for instance, when a steamer carrying a load of wool -- some of it with a checked pattern and some of it plain -- ran aground, the practical residents weren't above doing some salvage work.

"Kids for the whole next year had wool clothing that was either checked or plain," said Susan Dudley Gold, who edited "Scarborough at 350: Linking the Past to the Present," a history of the town published ahead of this weekend's town birthday celebration.

Scarborough's story since the town was chartered as part of Massachusetts in 1658 mirrors the arc of American history. From English settlers to the revolution, through the Civil War and finally post-World War II suburbia, Scarborough has been in near-continuous transition, which continues today.

"The community is changing," said Sylvia Most, a town councilor who chaired the committee that developed the history book that includes submissions from 77 writers and about a dozen photographers. "The 350th comes at a time when the community has increasingly become a unified town and important suburb of Portland."

Gold said Scarborough almost missed out on the whole townhood thing because residents didn't like the close link between government and religion in Massachusetts. Maine was part of Massachusetts until statehood in 1820 and residents needed a charter from the colony to the south to establish a town, and they resisted for a bit.

In fact, Gold said one theory of town's name is that is was picked because Scarborough, England, was one of the last anti-royalists holdouts in the English Civil War in the 1630s.

Like many Maine towns, Scarborough had troubles with the local Abenaki tribe, which didn't appreciate English concepts of land ownership.

"Tensions became so great in the late 1600s that the settlers abandoned the town in 1690 and didn't re-settle until 1702," Gold said, but all was not forgotten or forgiven. The following year 18 farmers who left the safety of a garrison to tend to their cattle were killed by Abenakis and buried next to what's now known as Massacre Pond.

The Native American-settler troubles soon faded, however, as French support for the tribes evaporated after the French and Indian Wars. But Mainers, like most colonists, began agitating for independence, and those from Scarborough and the rest of southern Maine fought in the revolution from its earliest days.

The town staged a 300th anniversary celebration in 1958, she added, with games, clambakes, fireworks and beauty contests. The Lord Mayor of Scarborough, England, and his wife attended.

Most said the 350th anniversary comes at an interesting time for Scarborough, as the Haigis Parkway area is being developed, including the new Cabela's store that opened in May.

"There's a need to bridge that gap," Most said. The celebration, she added, "can link the past to the present."