Personalities
It seems unlikely that William Duffy would normally have been very upset to receive a summons for an unlit tail lamp. In this case, however, he was rankled, because the summons had been issued in Hicksville. That meant he would have to appear before the bench of widely-respected Justice Joseph Steinert. (Note that more information about Justice Steinert appeared in September's Ancient Hixtory, which is still available at 1809/hixtory.htm)
By several accounts, the men disdained each other. A letter published in the Long Islander, sympathetic to those who had been arrested, spoke of "the long-standing political enmity between Justice Steinert and Mr. Duffy." Steinert was an established leader of the Town of Oyster Bay's Democratic Party, but a bloc of younger Democrats viewed him as part of the Town's "old guard." Duffy had publicly criticized him in the past, hoping to stir the village's Democrats into seeking new leadership. Now he probably expected Steinert to take pleasure in watching him sweat in court.
Mutual mistrust may also have arisen because of the two men's different origins. Both had worked hard to attain positions of esteem in Hicksville, but compared to Duffy's origins in a farming family, Steinert had something of a head start. He was born into a family of lawyers, and he had arrived in Hicksville possessed of both a good education and useful connections. Duffy's being much younger would have amplified their differences; it seems likely that the Judge would have seemed condescending when dealing with the Fire Chief.
How did Duffy get to be a prominent citizen of Hicksville? He had been born late in 1882, the son of Henry Orth, a German immigrant, and Margaret Duffy, the daughter of an Irish family who farmed land situated along what people already were calling "Duffy's Lane." For reasons unknown to me, the 1900 U.S. Census does not list Mr. and Mrs. Orth as residing in Hicksville. It does, however, show their son, listed as farm laborer William Orth, living on the farm of his widowed grandmother, Catherine Duffy. At some point between that census and 1905, he had his name changed legally to William John Duffy.
Among his earliest impacts upon Hicksville was the transformation of well-used but decrepit Duffy's Lane into a proper public thoroughfare. By 1905, after decades of neglect - either the Town had been derelict in its duties, or perhaps it had never realized the lane was not private property - not everyone agreed on where the boundaries were between the lane and the adjoining farms.
Huntington Long Islander, October 7, 1902
Beginning that year, Duffy worked with the Town Board to resolve the disputed boundaries, and to get landowners along the lane to agree on its becoming a public road, one which would be supported by the TOBAY Highway Department. In May 1908, the Town accepted responsibility for maintaining the road, and the village powers agreed that the road should be renamed Duffy Avenue, in honor of the man who had worked for more than three years to effect the change. William J. Duffy was not yet finished, however. He then began working to get street lights installed along the full length of the avenue, ensuring that the light nearest his own property was installed last, after those near all his neighbors' properties.
More public achievements soon followed. Still a farmer, he was elected to the Board of Education, and for a time served as its President. He became Fire Chief. He served as a member of the Nassau County Farm Bureau, on the Hicksville Board of Trade, and he became increasingly active in the Town of Oyster Bay's Democratic Party.
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