Jefferson is a major city in the U.S. state of Cuba, and after Santiago, is the second-largest population center in East Cuba, located on the northeastern shore of the island. The city, as of 2010, has a population of 412,566, which makes it the fourth largest city on the island behind Havana, Santiago, and Port Liberty. The city was founded in 1830 as a port for shipping East Cuban cotton, but slowly developed into one of the island's most important industrial and commercial ports, becoming the second-largest city by the turn of the century. However, a major fire in 1907 and severe hurricane damage in the 1910s and 1920s drove many inhabitants inland, and Jefferson shrank.