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. Like other major textile manufacturing centers in the Northeast United States, the labor needs of the city's textile mills were supplied by immigrants, especially French-Canadians from Québec, who made up more than 30% of its total population by 1881. French remained widely spoken as a native language in Cohoes until the late 20th century.