Ned Buntline, Writer, Adventurer, and Scoundrel

by Terry Diener

A man credited with creating the legends that surrounded ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody, ‘Wild Bill’ Hickock, and ‘Bat’ Masterson spent some of his formative years in Danville, Montour County.

Ned Buntline’s real name was Edward Zane Carroll Judson. Reference made by D.H.B. Brower in his 1881 History of Danville mentions this colorful adventurer and writer. Brower says, “Ned Buntline, the nom de plume of E.Z. Judson, who has gained some notoriety as a writer, lecturer, and hunter in the wilds of America spent his boyhood and school going days in Danville”.

Specific information on when and how long Judson, a.k.a. Buntline spent in Danville is difficult to find. We know that Judson was born in Stamford Village, New York on March 20^th, 1823. One description said he was a short, ungainly man with a hunched back and distinctive red hair. At an early age, Buntline ran away to sea, became a midshipman, and resigned 4 years later. Leaving life at sea, Ned had incredible adventures in the Seminole Wars and the Wild West.

He is said to have written his first book at the age of 15 and during his lifetime, Buntline wrote more than 400 action novels which were forerunners of the dime novels. Mark Twain reportedly patterned some of his stories after the formula used by Buntline. And, Ned’s ‘King of the Border Men’ was the first novel ever written about Buffalo Bill and his life on the American Plains. In addition to his tales of the Wild West, Buntline also wrote about the sea. In nautical terms, ‘buntline’ is a rope at the bottom of a square sail.

Found having a dalliance with a married woman in 1846 and killing her husband in a duel, he was lynched for murder. Friends of the husband said he was shot in the back, others believed it was

self-defense. Buntline was secretly cut down by friends still alive and released. He ran off to New York City.

In 1849 Buntline was arrested as an instigator in the Astor Place riot against the British actor William Charles Macready. Whether due to Buntline’s dislike of Macready’s British citizenship or his poor acting, the cause of the riot was never made clear. When it was over, the riot killed 34 people and injured 140 others. Buntline served one year of hard labor in New York’s Blackwell Island prison for his part in that incident.

But Buntline was as resilient as the heroes he wrote about. In the 1850’s he surfaced in Saint Louis as an organizer of the No Nothing political movement. Officially known as the American Party, it emerged from secret societies opposed to immigrants coming to America.

Buntline is said to have hooked up with William ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody in 1872. He persuaded the 25-year-old Cody to play himself in Buntline’s play ‘The Scouts of the Prairie’ which opened in Chicago in December of that year. But,a year with Buntline and the play proving to be a financial disappointment, Cody went on his own to form his ‘Wild West Show’.

Because of his notoriety as a writer, Buntline is said to have received as much as sixty thousand dollars a year for his books. It is said that once under pressure he wrote a book of 610 pages in 62 hours, taking little time to sleep or eat during that time.

Observers say Buntline had the makings of a great man; he just didn’t use the ingredients correctly. He was brave, daring and a complete patriot. Unfortunately, he spoiled these traits, with bragging and trying to make himself look like one of his dime novel heroes. 

In the 1870s, Buntline returned to his birthplace of Stamford, NY to a home he had christened ‘The Eagles Nest’. Buntline died from heart disease on July 16, 1886. It is said there were more than 800 people at his funeral.

Possibly those boyhood years in Danville played a role in the larger-than-life story of Edward Zane Carroll Judson/Buntline.

Story Credit: Lynn Reichen of the Montour County Historical Society

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons