page_title: Cohoes, New York
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Cohoes, New York / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the city of Cohoes in 1891
context_page_description: Cohoes is an incorporated city located in the northeast corner of Albany County in the U.S. state of New York. It is called the "Spindle City" because of the importance of textile manufacturing to its growth in the 19th century. The city's factories processed cotton from the Deep South.
  As of the 2010 census, the city population was 16,168. The name Cohoes is believed to be derived from a Mohawk term, Ga-ha-oose, referring to the Cohoes Falls and meaning "Place of the Falling Canoe," an interpretation noted by Horatio Gates Spafford in his 1823 publication "A Gazetteer of the State of New York". Later historians posited that the name is derived from the Algonquian Cohoes, a place name based on a word meaning 'pine tree'.
context_section_description: In the early years of Dutch colonial settlement, the majority of the city's territory was once part of the area of Manor of Rensselaerswyck, a feudal-style manor or patroonship. The land north of a line crossing the Cohoes Falls (today Manor Avenue) was outside the Manor and was owned by the Van Olohde family between 1725 and 1750. Rensselaerswyck was established by Killiaen Van Rensselaer, the patroon and a Dutch merchant. In 1632, he had an agent pace off an enormous triangle-shaped area around the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers, from the Peebles Island northwest to the Cohoes Falls and south to today's Watervliet; this area was the core of the future city of Cohoes. Starting in the 1690s the Patroon began to issue leases for the area of Cohoes, reserving for himself a strip below the Cohoes Falls for the future site of mills powered by water.
   Though the area was not much settled for a time, it was known for the Cohoes Falls. One of the earliest descriptions of the falls was in 1642 by Johannes Megapolensis, the first dominie (Dutch Reformed pastor) of Beverwyck. Another early description was in 1656 by Adriaen van der Donck in his Description of New Netherland. In the early-to-mid 17th century, a whale swam upriver in the Hudson, becoming stranded in the Mohawk River on an island just below the Cohoes Falls. The Dutch settlers could not easily get to the large carcass to remove it. As it rotted, the river became slick for three weeks. A settler commented that "the air was infected with its stench... perceptible for two miles to leeward." Beginning about 1646, settlers called this land Whale Island.
  During the various French and Indian Wars of the mid-18th century, Van Schaick Island was developed as part of a military road that came from Albany north along the islands at the mouth of the Mohawk River. These islands allowed for easier fords across the various mouths of the Mohawk and access to Waterford and points north. The islands were used for numerous military encampments during both the French and Indian Wars and the American Revolutionary War.
  The Van Schaick Mansion on Van Schaick Island was built in the 1730s; it was one of the sites used as a military headquarters during the Revolution by the Americans under Major Generals Philip Schuyler and Horatio Gates. Van Schaick Island was the first part of Cohoes to be settled and farmed; it was formerly known as Cohoes Island and Anthony's Island.
  Until after the Revolutionary War, Cohoes was a small quiet hamlet with isolated farms. After the Mohawk and other Iroquois allies of the British were forced to cede their territory, New York encouraged new settlement. Thousands of Yankee settlers came from New England. Cohoes was linked to the larger settlements of Lansingburg and Albany. In 1795 the first bridge across the Mohawk River was constructed at Cohoes. It was 900 feet long, 24 feet wide, 15 feet high, and was based on 13 stone piers. It cost $12,000 to build and was a toll bridge. This bridge provided access to Cohoes as one of the main routes north. The bridge was rebuilt in 1806 by the Cohoes Bridge Company, which raised the tolls to cover the cost.
  Another major transportation improvement, construction of the Erie and Champlain canals were begun in 1817. The section in Cohoes was finished in 1823, stimulating trade for the city. Cohoes was known as Juncta because of being served by the two canals, which improved water traffic north to Lake Champlain and west through the Mohawk Valley. One or both of the canals crossed every farm in Cohoes. Even with the canals and the bridge bringing easier access to larger markets, Cohoes was a sleepy place prior to 1831. The nearest post office was at Waterford; fresh meat and produce were available mostly by residents raising their own. A United States post office was built in Cohoes in 1831.
  In 1811 the Cohoes Manufacturing Company, owned entirely by men from Lansingburg, was incorporated and began a factory for making screws. This was the first large industry in Cohoes to use the power of the Mohawk River and
caption: Map of Cohoes in 1891
exif: {}