Joshua is a city in Johnson County, Texas, United States. The population was 5,910 at the 2010 census and an estimated 7,887 in 2018.

Joshua is in the Cross Timbers region of Texas, on house patented by W. W. Byers in 1867. The section was sold in 1874 to John Powell. Caddo Grove, 2 miles (3 km) east of Joshua, was the first community in the area. It had its own declare office and was a wealthy town until the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway was completed from Cleburne to Fort Worth in 1881. The railroad missed Caddo Grove, and a station was built upon the tracks at the site of far along Joshua. The station was originally called “Caddo Peak”, but the broadcast was rejected by the make known office because of unusual community as soon as that name. The name “Joshua” was chosen, purportedly by Dr. D. B. McMillan, after the biblical Joshua. W. L. West was the first postmaster later than the community customary a publicize office in 1882. In 1883, Caddo Grove’s proclaim office was withdrawn.

The plat for Joshua was first surveyed in 1880, and the community was organized in 1881 taking into consideration the railroad arrived. The first store, opened in 1882 by W. L. West, also housed the publish office. By 1890, Joshua had a population of 300, two steam-powered corn mills and cotton gins, a hotel, a general store, and a newspaper, the Johnson County Record. The railroad shipped farm produce, Joshua’s largest export. The first one-room teacher opened in 1890, and in 1899, it moved into a other building. In 1917, this teacher became Joshua High School. In 1900 and 1912, Joshua suffered major fires. In bad feeling of this, new businesses continued to open. The Citizen’s Banking Company, opened in 1904, was run by J. W. Spencer. Two years later, a public water system began. Truck gardens, orchards, and corn and cotton farms surrounded Joshua.

In 1912, the Fort Worth South Traction Line began to find the maintenance for interurban rail service from Cleburne to Fort Worth, with a stop in Joshua. Service stopped in 1932 because of the growing importance of automobile travel. The first car in Joshua was purchased in 1913. By 1914, the community had a population of 824, two cotton gins, an ice plant, a bank, a newspaper named the Joshua Star, and four churches. Local farms grew cotton and potatoes.