David M. Arndt, Sandusky Businessman, Local Telephone Pioneer

Mr. David M. Arndt was known as one of Sandusky’s foremost citizens. He moved to Sandusky in the 1860s from Seneca County, Ohio. Mr. Arndt worked in several different lines of work in Sandusky, including grain shipping, a dry goods business, and a stave factory. Additionally, he had been superintendent of the Sandusky Water Works. 

According to an article in the April 9, 1921 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal, the first telephones in Sandusky were brought here as a result of D.M. Arndt’s efforts. It turns out that he was personally acquainted with Alexander Graham Bell. The two gentlemen met in New York in 1878, where Arndt saw a demonstration on an early telephone. Soon Mr. Arndt purchased six telephones and brought them to Sandusky. Several other Sandusky residents also wanted a telephone, so wires were strung across trees and housetops. All six phones were on the same line, and every time a call was made, all the individuals on the crude network could hear the conversation. 

On May 18, 1914, David M. Arndt died at the home of his son, the Rev. Charles Henry Arndt, in Germantown, Pennsylvania. An article in the May 27, 1914 issue of the Sandusky Register stated that on his way home from his daughter’s funeral in Chicago in the fall of 1913, Mr. Arndt stopped by Sandusky on his way back to Germantown. While in Sandusky, He visited with Major C.B. Wilcox, Dr. Charles E. Stroud, and John J. Marquart, and made plans with the group for his own funeral arrangements. Two funerals were held for Mr. Arndt, one in Germantown, and one in Sandusky. In Sandusky, Mr. Arndt’s remains lay in state at the Masonic Temple. James A. Ryan delivered the sermon at the Knights Templar services. He was buried in Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery, next to his wife, Anna Arndt, who had predeceased him in 1909.