![\"Cohoes](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/francoamericangravy.com\/wills\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/2013-06-28k.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\nCohoes is a city in Albany County, New York at the junction of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers.\u00a0 That geographic position and the water power generated by the rivers made it a crossroad in the 19th century for canals, railroads, multiple textile mills as well as\u00a0 immigrants from Quebec, Ireland, Italy, Ukraine, Armenia and Poland.\u00a0 It is also home to the Cohoes Falls.<\/p>\n
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The land and islands in the rivers beneath the mills, homes\u00a0 and downtown was once the home of the Mohawk people, Mahican people, and indigenous people.\u00a0 People in Cohoes were often told in 1609\u00a0 Henry Hudson sailed the Half Moon all the way up the Hudson River to Cohoes and a replica used to have a place in a city park.\u00a0 The New York State Archives in Albany has has documents of Dutch colonists purchasing land for patents<\/a> in the vicinity of Fort Orange and Cohoes Falls from indigenous peoples.\u00a0 The Dutch brought disease along with them and by 1628, native populations suffered and many died.\u00a0 Meanwhile the beaver trade was steady.\u00a0 The part of present day Cohoes that was on the west side of the Hudson played its part in the American Revolution.\u00a0 Native populations diminished,\u00a0 farms and logging moved in.\u00a0 The Schuyler family had timber plantations, with enslaved African laborers, upriver in what is now Saratoga county.\u00a0 Then came the Industrial Revolution, and Cohoes, relying on a continual source of cotton from southern plantations moved quickly from wool to cotton production.\u00a0 The the immigrants came to run the mills.\u00a0 In the 19th century, it was diverse.\u00a0 The engineers and factory superintendents comprised the educated upper class, the immigrants made up the working class.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By the 19th century, Cohoes had multiple churches to serve the diverse community.\u00a0 The Cohoes Library has attempted to enumerate them all here<\/a>.\u00a0 Catholic churches were language based and there were many- 4 French (St. Joseph, St. Marie, St. Anne and Sacr\u00e9 Coeur), 3 Irish (St. Bernard, St. Patrick, St. Agnes) 1 Ukrainian Orthodox (Sts. Peter and Paul) , 1 Polish (St. Michael), 1 Italian (St. Rita).\u00a0 The Protestant Churches were multiple Presbyterian, Episcopal, Methodists, Baptists, Dutch Reformed, Lutheran, Scandinavian Pilgrim and at least one synagogue.<\/p>\n For the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was a diverse community.\u00a0 \u00a0It’s crown has always been the Cohoes Falls which doesn’t fail to awe observers, especially in spring when the Mohawk River floods.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/francoamericangravy.com\/wills\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/DSC_0033.jpg?resize=300%2C199&ssl=1\")
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