By 1826, the City of St. Charles and the County of St. Charles was changing. The old French and Spanish families of the early days of settlement had given way to the new American families flooding westward. Residents such as Gottfried Duden had come to see why the American families were flooding its valleys. A book about his experience was published in Germany in 1829, an the tide of German emigrants flooded its hills and valleys, especially along the Missouri River.
