No, really.  It is.

This is from an article from the June 4, 1899 edition of The New York Journal.

“The lack of rain on Long Island has worried the farmers all month. On Saturday, those living at Northport formed a committee, and calling on the pastors of all the churches, asked them to pray for showers.

The clergymen did as they were requested, and in a few hours a thunderstorm came. There was a magnificent display of lightning and a heavy fall of thunderbolts.

The lightning did great damage. The house and barn of George P. Lewis (who was a member of the committee who asked the pastors to pray for a storm) was struck; the barn and its contents were wholly destroyed.

At Bay Shore, where prayers were also said for rain, William Gunther’s carriage house was struck and burned. George Tilley’s barn, at Jericho, was destroyed.

The same storm was felt at Spring Valley. Farmer Benjamin Baker was burned out of house and home. Lightning knocked him and his wife senseless.

Grace Episcopal church, at Nyack, was struck by lightning during Sunday Night’s services.

A house at Orangeburg, near Nyack, was destroyed. Several houses, barns and trees in the vicinity also suffered.”