A combined and indexed edition of "Recollections of Sixty Years in Methuen" and "Recollections of Civil War," historical addressed read before the Methuen Historical Society in 1905. William Barnes was born on March 15, 1834, in Orford, NH; his family moved to Methuen when he was 11 years old. At 27 years old, Barnes a married man with 4 children, joined the 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery and fought in ten battles in a span of three months during the civil war. He worked in a Methuen hat factory for over thirty years, and as janitor of the new Nevins Memorial Library for eighteen years after that. He wrote these essays shortly after his retirement in 1905. William Barnes died tragically in a fall at the Odd Fellows building, on February 5, 1913. His recollections of Methuen are an integral part of all Methuen historical research.