In 18th and 19th centuries the town started to grow rapidly, mostly thanks to large numbers of Jews settling there as a result of Russian discriminatory policies. By the second half of the 19th century they made up the majority of local inhabitants. According to the Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland, in the late 19th century the city had 8336 inhabitants, 6122 of them Jews. In 1908, the railway station was opened.