Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Judson, Edward Z. C.

JUDSON, Edward Z. C., author, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1822; d. in Stamford, Delaware co., N. Y., 16 July, 1886. His father was a lawyer, and intended to educate the son for the bar, but he ran away to sea as a cabin-boy, and the next year shipped on board of a man-of-war. When thirteen years old he rescued the crew of a boat that had been run down by a Fulton ferry boat, and received from President Van Buren a commission as midshipman in the U. S. navy. On being assigned to the “Levant,” he fought seven duels with midshipmen who refused to mess with him because he had been a common sailor, and escaped from each without a wound. During the civil war he was chief of scouts among the Indians, with the rank of colonel, and during his service received twenty wounds. His first literary efforts began with a story of adventure in the “Knickerbocker Magazine” in 1838. He became editor of a weekly story-paper, called “Ned Buntline's Own,” in 1848, and during the Astor place riots was arrested for exciting an outbreak through its columns. In September, 1849, he was sentenced to a $250 fine and a year's imprisonment. After his release he devoted himself to writing sensational stories for weekly newspapers under the pen-name of “Ned Buntline,” and his income from this source is said to have amounted to $20,000 a year. He was a frequent lecturer on temperance, and until the presidential canvass of 1884 was an ardent Republican politician.