The town was destroyed by fire in 1812 in the course of the French campaign against Russia, and rebuilt again, to become a trade and commercial centre known for its furs, fabrics and hats in Congress Poland.

Local monks were expelled from Stawiski in 1867 during, as punishment for supporting the Polish January Uprising against the Russian imperial rule.

Some Poles who had been ordered to supervise Jewish labor brigades humiliated the conscripted workers.

The Germans deported a group of able-bodied male Jews (and Christians) to forced labor camps in East Prussia.

Local Poles, mostly recently released from Soviet prisons, asked German permission to take revenge on the Jews and killed some.

[citation needed] In early July 1941 the Germans instigated a pogrom in which Polish mobs armed with iron bars murdered some 300 Jews.

Some Jews from Stawiski who survived in hiding sought refuge in the Łomża Ghetto, others remained hidden until permitted by the Germans to work as farm laborers.

[7] Some of the Stawiski Jews murdered during the war are buried in a mass grave at the Jewish cemetery in the Płaszczatka forest [pl].

Gross revenue and net profits fluctuate depending on expenditures in the public sector, such as environmental protection, water management, dump disposal, sewers, etc.

[2] A local football team, GKS Stawiski, was founded in 2008 and as of 2018 plays in the regional A-class league.

In the main square, there is a monument to Stanisław Steczkowski Zagończyk, who, together with his four brothers, fought in the underground Polish Home Army in 1942–1945.