from The History of Hendricks County (Indianapolis: B.F. Bowen & Co., 1914)--pages 376-378
It must be conceded that in this age of enterprise and marked intellectual energy, the successful men are those whose abilities lead them to assume the responsibilities and labors of leaders in their respective fields of endeavor. Success is methodical and consecutive and represents the concrete result of the determined application of individual abilities and powers along rigidly defined lines of labor, whether mental or manual.
Luke W. Duffey, a Hendricks County boy, has acquired a wide reputation as a real estate operator, and his operations have included the handling and improving of many properties of important order. He is also a recognized factor in the “Good Roads” movement in America and as chairman of the good roads committee of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce has been one of the most enthusiastic workers in the commendable cause of good roads. As a frequent delegate to the American Road Congress he has wielded a potent influence both as a worker and as an orator. He is a forceful and logical speaker on road betterment, a subject to which he has given much study and on which he is now recognized as an authority, having been appointed by Governor Ralston to lead a state highway commission as its secretary. He was elected by the Indianapolis Real Estate Board to make the address for Indianapolis in the convention at Winnipeg, Canada, in 1913, where there were seventy-five cities represented, and a correspondent for an English newspaper gave him rating and credits over the Springfield, Ohio, representative who won the contest in which they were participating.
Mr. Duffey is a native of Hendricks County, born October 24, 1879, the son of Squire Eli F. and Nancy J. Duffey, who are now residents of Plainfield, this county. He is a grandson of Michael Duffey, who settled at Belleville, Liberty Township, Hendricks County, in 1842, and whose father fought under Washington in the memorable revolutionary struggle to free the American colonies. On the maternal side he is the grandson of Elam Benbow, who came from Carolina and settled in Clay Township, Hendricks County, in 1828 with his father, the latter entering a quarter section of land upon which a portion of the present town of Amo is situated.
After finishing his common school education, Luke Duffey entered the Central Normal College at Danville in the autumn of 1897. He completed the course in law and was admitted to the Hendricks County Bar August 4, 1900. While in attendance at the college he worked in private families for his board and took care of the office of Brill and Harvey for the privilege of using the books and getting better acquainted with the routine of work in a law office; here he developed a definite knowledge of the statutes of descent, becoming an expert titleman and thereby developing his real estate talent. He later became interested in the real estate business and has since devoted his energies and talents to this field exclusively. His success was assured from the first. Extensive deals soon gained for him a reputation that reached far beyond the boundaries of Hendricks County, and in 1910, seeking a larger field, he removed to Indianapolis and established the Luke W. Duffey Farm Sales Company, with offices at No. 8 West Ohio Street, a large and substantial enterprise, specializing in farm lands, though buying and selling realty of all kinds in various parts of the county.
Mr. Duffey has probably done as much as any man living to boom his home county. He has laid out three of the finest additions to the town of Plainfield and constructed more than a score of their most beautiful and substantial homes, and to him must be given credit for the appearance of the great western wing of Indianapolis, which has sprung up like a mushroom in response to some able advertisements that he has written on the advantages offered in that section lying west of Eagle Creek and between the Hendricks County line and the city proper. He has platted the Sterling Heights tract, Lookout Plaza, Duffey's Second Addition to Lookout Plaza, Lookout Garden, and is credited with having first conceived the idea of this territory as a town site, which has now something like two thousand homes to evidence his judgment as a far-seeing real estate man.
Mr. Duffey is also proprietor of the famous Hotel De Hoss, the largest livery in the state of Indiana. He has always been interested in the live stock business and is a frequent speaker and judge at stock shows and conventions. He is a member of the Indianapolis Real Estate Exchange and was appointed vice-chairman of the agricultural development committee of the International Real Estate Exchange, the purpose of which is to cooperate with the House and Senate committees of Congress, with the Canadian Parliament and with the National Bankers Agricultural Committee to bring about improved farming conditions. He is a Mason, a Knight of Pythias and a Modern Woodman; he holds a birthright membership in the Quaker Church, and is an active member of the Indianapolis Commercial Club.
Luke Duffey is a progressive and public-spirited citizen with a program. Poverty did not dishearten him, misfortune deter him, nor hardships turn him a hair's breadth from his course. His whole nature is dominated by the spirit of progress. He has shown marked executive ability and has handled his independent business with much of prescience and skill, so that his operations have yielded to him due returns and have proved of value to those whom he has served in his professional capacity. His success is the more gratifying to contemplate on the score that it represents the direct results of his own labors and ability. He has been dependent on his own resources from early youth, and has made his business career by his own indomitable energy, and the scrupulous care and honor he gives to every transaction entrusted to him as given him a large and growing patronage. Personally, he is genial, obliging and is universally popular.