Starting in 1909, Schwertner was along the tracks of the Bartlett-Florence Railway, later the Bartlett Western Railroad, which ran from a connection at Bartlett, Texas with the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad to Florence, Texas, a significant cotton-processing center.[3][4] The railroad gave Apostolic names to its stops, and the station for Schwertner was known as St. Matthew.[5] However, that line was abandoned in 1935.[6]