The park was renamed Carl Schurz Park in June 1910 for the noted Statesman Carl Schurz. A German immigrant, he was a Civil War general, lawyer, minister to Spain, and first German-American to serve in the Senate, elected from Missouri. An advocate of the abolition of slavery, he was instrumental in getting Abraham Lincoln elected, delivering the German-American vote in 1860. He went on to be appointed Secretary of the Interior by President Rutherford B. Hayes. Moving to New York City, he became an editor for the New-York Evening Post and later Harper’s Weekly. After his death in 1906, the German-American community of Yorkville advocated for East River Park to be renamed in Schurz’s honor.
