Swords was a Morgan County community named for the family whose contributions substantially aided its economic success, and its origins lay in the success of the J.B. Swords Distillery, an early whiskey manufacturer contemporary with Jack Daniels Distillery. It developed near Blue Springs, one of the county’s earliest communities, which took its name from the healthy natural water sources in the area that were essential to the distillery. Area farms also produced cotton and timber, and in 1910 the Georgia Railroad built a side track and depot in Swords that made transportation of these commodities easier. Formally incorporated by the Georgia Legislature on August 16, 1909, Swords had a bank, post office, school building, and jail, while its commercial center included a general supply store, blacksmith shop, grist mill, cotton gin, and several cotton warehouses. The Swords Methodist Church was built in 1912, and a community cemetery lies on Blue Springs Road near Lake Oconee. Prohibition in the 1920s led to the end of the distillery business, declining demand for passenger rail brought removal of the depot in 1956, and fire destroyed the commercial center in the 1980s. Though no longer incorporated, Swords remains recognized as a significant part of Morgan County history.