Bingham is a town in Somerset County, Maine, in the United States. The population was 866 at the 2020 census. Bingham is a historic town located beside the Kennebec River. The primary settlement in town, where over 86% of the population resides, is defined as the Bingham census-designated place. History First settled in 1785, the town is named after William Bingham, a Philadelphia banker and politician who at one time owned two million acres (8,000 km2) of land in Maine known as the Bingham Purchase. The community was incorporated on February 6, 1812. By 1859, when the population was 752, Bingham had two water powered sawmills and two gristmills. It is located on the Old Canada Road (U. S. Route 201), which between 1820 until 1860 served as the primary link between Lower Canada and Maine. Bingham became an important Maine Central Railroad loading point for pulpwood floated down the Kennebec River to Wyman Dam until environmental regulations curtailed log driving in the 1970s. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and is water. Bingham is drained by Jackson Brook and the Kennebec River. The town is traversed by U. S. Route 201 and Maine State Route 16. It is bordered by the towns of Moscow to the north, Brighton Plantation to the east, and Solon to the south. Climate This climatic region is typified by large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and cold (sometimes severely cold) winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Bingham has a humid continental climate, abbreviated "Dfb" on climate maps. Demographics 2010 census As of the census of 2010, there were 922 people, 429 households, and 245 families living in the town. The population density was . There were 600 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 97.0% White, 0.9% African American, 0.7% Native American, 0.3% Asian, 0.2% from other races, and 1.0% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.8% of the population. There were 429 households, of which 24.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.5% were married couples living together, 10.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.1% had a male householder with no wife present, and 42.9% were non-families. 35.2% of all