Elmer S. Dundy

	Dundy County Nebraska Genealogy Trails

Elmer Scipio Dundy
Dundy county Nebraska was named for Supreme Court Judge, Elmer S. Dundy.

Elmer Scipio Dundy was born in Trumbull County, Ohio on March 5, 1830 and died in Nebraska, October 28, 1896. He was of Protestant German ancestry, his progenitors settling in eastern Pennsylvania and Maryland in the early part of the seventeenth century. His boyhood was spent on the home farm, and about 1850 the family moved to Clearfield county, Pennsylvania, where young Dundy taught several terms of district school, and then settled in the town of Clearfield, where he became principal of schools.

While engaged in teaching, he pursued the study of law in the office of William A. Wallace, a leading democratic politician of Pennsylvania, who afterwards achieved national prominence. Mr. Dundy was admitted to the Clearfield county bar in 1853.

In 1857 he arrived at Nebraska City, Nebraska territory, coming by steamboat from St. Louis. After remaining at Nebraska City a few weeks he removed to Archer, then the county seat of Richardson county. When the town of Falls City was laid out, Mr. Dundy removed to that place, where he continued to reside until his death. He was elected to the council of the territorial assembly in the fall of 1858 and reelected in 1860.

From 1858 to 1863 he was active in the practice of his profession. In the latter year he was appointed by President Lincoln associate justice of the supreme court of the territory of Nebraska. His district extended from the Platte River south to the Kansas line and covered about one-half of the organized counties of the territory of Nebraska. "He held court in each county twice a year; and then during the winter months, the three district justices sitting en banc at Omaha, composed the Supreme Court to sit in judgment upon such cases as were appealed or brought on writ of error from the several district courts."

Retiring from the bench, he practiced for one year, and in May, 1868, he was appointed by President Johnson, after a bitter and protracted struggle, United States district judge for the district of Nebraska, which office he held until his death, October 28, 1896. Judge Dundy was a candidate for United States senator before the 1st state legislature which convened at Omaha, July 4, 1866, but was defeated.

Early in 1861 Judge Dundy was married to Miss Mary H. Robertson at Omaha, Nebraska. Four children were born of this union: E. S., Jr., May, Luna, and a daughter who died in childhood. Mrs. Dundy and her son reside in New York city.
--Morton, J. Sterling (1911). Elmer S. Dundy. Illustrated History of Nebraska, 352-353

Elmer S. Dundy is best known for presiding over the trial of Ponca Chief Standing Bear after he and his people returned to Nebraska when they found the living conditions on the Quapaw Reservation, where they had been sent, to be unsuitable. Standing Bear and his followers returned to the Omaha Reservation and he was arrested. Standing Bears attorney's petitioned Judge Elmer S. Dundy's court where he was proven to be "a person" by Judge Dundy's decision. During the trial, Standing Bear rose, extending his hand toward the judge's bench: "That hand is not the color of yours, but if I pierce it, I shall feel pain. If you pierce your hand, you also feel pain. The blood that will flow from mine will be the same color as yours. I am a man. God made us both."

Judge Dundy was known as a fair and compassionate judge.

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Judge Elmer S. Dundy

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