The Augusta, Gibson & Sandersville Railroad ran track through Matthews in the mid-1880s and built a depot around that time. There’s a similar depot in Mitchell, on the same line. Hubert Bowman notes: The train station was used during WW I I to bring German prisoners of war to work on the farms. When it ended my uncle purchased it and used it for seed storage on his farm. He was the County Farm extension agent and farm over 2000 acres at one time.He also had a huge hog production facility.