In June, 1861 Elmer Dundy married Ohio native Mary H. Robison and they had a son a year later, Elmer Scipio Dundy Jr., followed by 3 daughters: Mary Mae, Luna, and Enid Alva (died at one year of age).

[2] Following the admission of the State of Nebraska to the Union on March 1, 1867, Dundy was nominated by President Andrew Johnson on April 4, 1868, to the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska, to a new seat authorized by 15 Stat.

His service terminated on October 28, 1896, due to his death in Omaha, Nebraska,[2] at which time Dundy was the longest-serving judge appointed by Johnson.

On May 12, 1879, Dundy ruled in the case Standing Bear v. Crook that Standing Bear and other Ponca were "people" who able to bring petitions for habeas corpus, and that Indians who had severed their relationships with their tribes could not be ordered to a reservation against their will.

[3][4] The next year, Dundy was part of the lower court panel that heard Elk v. Wilkins, which asserted that Indians who had left their tribes and submitted to the jurisdiction of the United States were American citizens.