Freak of Lightning

On Tuesday evening about nine o'clock, during the progress of the storm, many of the citizens of Phillipsburg, were startled by a loud, quick report, and those who happened to be out were blinded by a most vivid flash of lightning. It struck the double brick house on Brainerd street, just below Hudson, occupied by Mr. Weightman and Mr. Putman, passing obliquely through Weightman's roof, scorching the rafters, and down through Putnam's into the kitchen, jumping from a nail, bored a whole[sic] through a dripping pan, and glued together a couple of spoons. A rag hanging over the spout of a can of oil was next visited, setting it on fire, so that the can had to be thrown out, and demolishing things generally. It then took a backward course and spent itself in Weightman's cistern. No one in the house felt the shock very severely, but Miss Lizzie Stiles, living on Washington street, was knocked from her chair, and Mr. John Schooley, who was going up Hudson street, when near the cedars was knocked on his knees, and for some minutes was quite stunned. Mr. C. W. Mutchler, who saw the flash, said it was in the form of a ball, and exploded about six feet above the house.---- Easton Dispatch.

Daily State Gazette, Trenton, NJ 2 Jul 1875

My Note: This is from an 1875 newspaper. Apparently this was a single powerful bolt of lightning that went through two homes, and produced a shockwave that knocked people down outside. Incredible.