The family removed to Middletown in the Summer of 1873; and to the Bronx in September 1889.
He graduated from Wallkill Academy in 1889, and from Manhattan College in 1893.
Then he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1895, and practiced in New York City.
He died in 1950, and was buried at the Old St. Raymond's Cemetery in the Bronx.
New York Supreme Court Justice Daniel F. Cohalan (1867–1946) was his brother.