The site of modern-day Stanly County was originally peopled by small tribes of hunter-gatherers and Mound Builders whose artifacts and settlements have been dated back nearly 10,000 years.

Large-scale European settlement of the region came in the mid-18th century via two primary waves: immigrants of Dutch, Scots-Irish and German descent moved from Pennsylvania and New Jersey seeking enhanced religious and political tolerance, while immigrants of English backgrounds came to the region from Virginia and the Cape Fear River Basin in Eastern North Carolina.

Following a short manhunt through several states, he was captured by a local posse near Big Lick in 1892.

Shortly after his capture and incarceration a mob of angry citizens gathered at the jail to demand Whitley be turned over to them.

Sheriff Snuggs had been alerted to the mob's intention and he transferred all the prisoners from the jail to his own home across the street—except Whitley, who was seized by the mob, beaten, and hanged from a tree off South Street in Albemarle.

Because the county's name was often misspelled, in 1971 the North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation making the "Stanly" spelling official.

Stanly County is a member of the regional Centralina Council of Governments.

It has voted Republican in every presidential election since 1944, with the sole exception of 1976 when Southern Democrat Jimmy Carter carried the county.

It did vote Democratic in every election from 1876 to 1900, but since then it has voted solidly Republican except in the 1912 Wilson and 1932 to 1940 Franklin Roosevelt landslides, and with southerners John W. Davis and Carter heading the Democratic tickets.