From 1859: Freaks of Lightning

Note: The article below is from the June 7, 1859 Hartford Courant. The photograph (unrelated, except for the time period) is from the walls of the Middlesex County Historical Society's General Mansfield House. It shows our Main Street in 1860.


The lightning which struck Mr. M.H. Griffing’s barn, at Middletown, on Friday morning, played some queer freaks. It struck a carriage house attached to the barn, through which it passed, the flames following so rapidly as to destroy almost everything within. Mr. Griffing’s loss is about $4,000, on which there is very little insurance. In the stables were eighteen horses; one of which was fatally injured, while the other seventeen escaped unhurt. A man who was at the moment locking the door was knocked senseless, in which condition, or delirious he has since remained. The lightning also struck a servant girl in the carriage house, injuring her severely. After leaving the barn, the fluid leaped an intervening space of 53 feet and entered a separate barn in which a man was rubbing down a colt. The bolt passed between them, throwing them to opposite sides of the building, but apparently without serious injury to either. The family of Mr. Griffing, in the house, at a distance of perhaps 60 or 75 feet from the barn, were all sensibly affected by the shock, and some of them felt the effects for twenty-four hours afterwards, in the form of giddiness. A man in another house, a long distance from the spot, and seemingly too far to be affected by the stroke, had a lamp knocked out of his hand by the effects of the stroke, as he was going down stairs. Mr. Griffing saved 17 horses and 17 cows.