Joshua, Texas

Everything Joshua is known for

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Music in Joshua

Songs About Joshua

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Rivers & Roads in Song near Joshua

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Joshua.

History of Joshua

Edgecliff Village, TX RoadyGoat

Edgecliff Village. It's easy to drive through and think it's just another quiet suburb west of Fort Worth, nestled in the post oaks and blackjack oaks. A place where folks commute into the city for work, then come home to a slower pace. But this little ridge, sitting just a bit higher than Fort Worth, has a story to tell.

13.8 mi away

Edgecliff Village, TX RoadyGoat

Edgecliff Village is a product of that post-war boom, a little bedroom community perched just south of Fort Worth. You can feel it in the wide, quiet streets and the way the houses gently age together, each one a testament to a slower pace. They called it Edgecliff for a reason: that subtle rise in elevation, those extra few feet above the prairie, give it a different feel. You can almost imagine those early settlers, struggling with the brutal drought of the fifties, clinging to this little ridge, watching the Clear Fork wind its way through the valley below. What keeps people here now? Well, the commute to Fort Worth is manageable, of course, and the schools are decent. But if you ask a longtime resident, they'll probably tell you it's something more than that. It's the feeling of community, the kind where people still wave from their porches. They might mention the local legend, that time capsule buried in the park back in '76, still waiting to be unearthed. Maybe it's that sense of history, a quiet pride in a place that’s managed to stay just a little bit different, a little bit slower, even as the city around it keeps growing. It's a place where the post oaks and blackjack oaks still outnumber the stoplights, and that's exactly the way the folks here like it.

13.8 mi away

Edgecliff Village, TX RoadyGoat

Edgecliff Village, a quiet spot just south of Fort Worth, wasn't always here. It took shape after the Second World War, part of that wave of suburban expansion as folks sought a little more space. The land, slightly higher than Fort Worth at 725 feet, offered a nice vantage point – hence the name, Edgecliff Village. You’ll still see plenty of post oak and blackjack oak trees dotting the area, a reminder of the landscape that drew people in. Life wasn't always easy for those early residents. Many likely hoped to carve out a living from the land, but the severe drought of the 1950s put a stop to a lot of those agricultural dreams. Even so, the community took root. Folks began commuting to Fort Worth, finding work in the city's growing industries. The Clear Fork of the Trinity runs to the west, a constant presence, and the town incorporated in 1954. There’s a comfortable, neighborly feel here, a legacy perhaps of those early days when everyone relied on each other. Some say there's even a time capsule buried in the park from 1976, still waiting to be found, a little piece of history tucked away.

13.8 mi away

Joshua, TX

1881

Joshua is at the intersection of State Highway 174 and Farm Road 917, on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad seven miles southeast of Burleson and eight miles north of Cleburne in north central Johnson County. It is in the Cross Timbers region on land patented by W. W. Byers in 1867. The section was sold in 1874 to John Powell. Caddo Grove, two miles west of Joshua, was the first community in the area. It had its own post office and was a thriving 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 on the tracks at the site of future Joshua. The station was originally called Caddo Peak, but the name was rejected by the post office because of another Caddo Peak. The name Joshua was chosen, purportedly by Dr. D. B. McMillan, after the biblical Joshua. W. L. West was the first postmaster when the community received a post office in 1882. In 1883 Caddo Grove's post office was withdrawn. The plat for Joshua was first surveyed in 1880, and the community was organized in 1881 when the railroad arrived. The first store, opened in 1882 by W. L. West, also housed the post office. By 1890 Joshua had a population of 300, two steam corn mill- 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 school opened in 1890, and in 1899 it moved into a new building. In 1917 this school became Joshua High School. In 1900 and 1912 Joshua suffered major fires. In spite 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 provide service from Cleburne to Fort Worth and had 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. In the mid-1950s Joshua was incorporated, with Ted Strube as the first mayor. The population dropped to 550 during the 1950s and rose to 924 in 1970. By 1980 it was 1,470. Because of its proximity to Fort Worth, the population grew to 3,828 by 1990 and 4,528 by 2000. Joshua had fourteen businesses in 1970 and fifty-eight in 1980, when seven local manufacturers made such items as aluminum products, boat trailers, leather goods, and windows. The Joshua Tribune began publication in 1970 and was published until the early 1990s, when it moved to Burleson. By 2000 Joshua reported 239 businesses.

Union Hill Presbyterian Church and Cemetery

1879

Settlement in this area began in the early 1850s. By the 1870s Union Hill had developed into a small rural community of families primarily engaged in cotton farming. In 1879 a presbyterian congregation was organized in Union Hill through the efforts of the Rev. J. S. Davenport. The congregation erected a one-room church building at this site in 1880. In 1882 W. P. and Miley Johnson deeded five acres here to Union Hill Church trustees T. E. Wilshire, C. G. Witherspoon, and J. L. Shipley for church and cemetery purposes. The first recorded burial was that of Margaret Beatty on February 4, 1883. Among those buried here are area pioneers and their descendants and several veterans of the Civil War. A tabernacle was built in 1925 and in 1938 the graveyard was improved with the building of a fence with an arched gateway. A cemetery association was formed in 1983 and in 1992 a new tabernacle was constructed. Gatherings on December 24th for a Christmas Eve program and in June for a picnic are two special activities initiated by the congregation in the 1890s which have become traditional annual events. The church and cemetery continue to provide spiritual guidance and burial sites for the community.

Marystown Cemetery

1853

MARYSTOWN CEMETERY FAMILIES MOVED TO THIS AREA IN THE 1850s, SETTLING AMONG THE BEAUTIFUL TREES SURROUNDING QUIL MILLER CREEK AND ITS SPRINGS WHICH RAN ALMOST YEAR-ROUND. ONE OF THE EARLIEST SETTLERS, CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER J. S. WILSHIRE, FARMED WITH HIS WIFE AND SEVEN CHILDREN BY 1853. IN 1869, THOMAS W. HOLLINGSWORTH OPENED A MILL AND A LARGE MERCANTILE STORE. THE TOWN WAS NAMED MARYSVILLE FOR HIS WIFE, MARY, THE COMMUNITY’S FIRST SCHOOLTEACHER, WHO TAUGHT IN HER HOME JUST WEST OF THE CEMETERY. A POST OFFICE OPERATED FROM 1874-1901 WITH THE NAME OF MARYSTOWN, SINCE TEXAS ALREADY HAD A MARYSVILLE. ONLY THE BAPTIST CHURCH AND CEMETERY REMAIN FROM THE HISTORIC SETTLEMENT. MARYSTOWN CEMETERY COVERS MORE THAN TWO ACRES OF THE 1859 SURVEY OF ISAAC A. JACKSON. ABOUT 1860, HE SET ASIDE THE LAND FOR USE AS A CEMETERY WHEN HE BURIED A FAMILY MEMBER WHOSE GRAVE IS NOW UNKNOWN. THE OLDEST MARKED GRAVE IS FOR MARTHA JANE (LEDBETTER) WARE, WHO DIED ON MARCH 13, 1864. ABOUT 15 BURIALS ARE DIPHTHERIA VICTIMS FROM A PASSING 1870s WAGON TRAIN. PIONEER SETTLERS BURIED HERE INCLUDE ISAAC AND FANNIE JACKSON, THOMAS AND MARY HOLLINGSWORTH, AND ROBERT AND WILLIAM BILLINGSLEY, TWO SIGNERS OF THE 1854 PETITION TO CREATE JOHNSON COUNTY. MANY VETERANS OF U.S. MILITARY CONFLICTS DATING TO THE CIVIL WAR ARE INTERRED HERE. SEVERAL HEADSTONES DEPICT FRATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS INCLUDING WOODMEN OF THE WORLD AND MASONS. THE GENERAL LANDSCAPE IS TRADITIONAL IN NATURE. ENTRANCE IS THROUGH A HISTORIC WROUGHT IRON ARCH GATE. FAMILY PLOTS ARE MOSTLY CURBED OR FENCED. THE MARYSTOWN CEMETERY ASSOCIATION FORMED IN 1987 TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE AND OVERSIGHT OF THIS HISTORIC BURIAL GROUND AND ITS GRAVES WHICH PROVIDE A RECORD OF AREA FAMILIES AND A PIONEER RURAL COMMUNITY.

Historical Marker → · 4.0 mi away

Arnold, Oliver Perry

1847

An officer noted for integrity. Born in South Carolina. Came to Texas 1847, and engaged in livestock and mercantile business. Spent six years seeking gold in California. Returned to Johnson County, 1859; joined Co. H, Young's regiment, 1861. Served with distinction as Sheriff of Johnson County, 1870-1876. Married Abigail Winchester; they had 12 children. Arnold was the first president, Johnson County Park and Fair Association.

Historical Marker → · 4.1 mi away

Cross Timber, TX

1853

There have been two similarly-named communities located in northern Johnson County. The settlement of Cross Timbers was named for its location on the edge of the western Cross Timbers . The town was settled about 1853, and a post office opened there in 1870. By 1885 the community reported a population of 100, a school and church, and several businesses, including a cotton gin and gristmill. In 1890 Cross Timbers reported a population of 200. Though in 1896 the community school had one teacher with twenty-five students, by 1900 the school apparently no longer existed. Both the Missouri, Kansas and Texas and the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe lines bypassed the settlement in the 1880s. The Cross Timbers post office closed in 1904, and by 1910 the original community had apparently ceased to exist. The town of Cross Timber is located about ten miles north of Cleburne between State Highway 174 and Farm Road 731. This community took its name from the Cross Timber Farm in the area, and it incorporated in May 1991. City government consists of a mayor and five aldermen. A number of businesses operate in Cross Timber, and the city uses the fire department services of nearby Briaroaks. In 2000 the population was 277.

Tsha Handbook → · 3.9 mi away

Rodgers, Floyd H. [Slats]

1912

Floyd H. (Slats) Rodgers, aviation pioneer, was born in Tunnel Hill, Georgia, on March 7, 1889, the son of Charlie and Alice (Russell) Rodgers. He moved with the family to Keene, Texas, and after a brief education moved to the farm of an uncle near Waco. At the age of eighteen he applied for employment with the railroad; he advanced to locomotive engineer on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe in 1915. That same year he married Rosie Oliver; they had four children and were later divorced. Rodgers's boyhood experience with kites evolved into an avid interest in flying. Largely self-taught, he began to read extensively about planes. He first built a model plane that he put on display, and soon decided to build a larger version. With the help of John C. Fine, an engineer he met working on the Santa Fe, Rodgers designed and built a primitive aircraft, reputed to be the first built in Texas, which he flew without instruction in late 1912, a mere nine years after the first manned airplane flight by the Wright brothers. Because of a persistent droop in one wing Rodgers called the plane Old Soggy No. 1; he retired it in 1913. He became a civilian flight instructor for the army in 1916 and went on to fly army-surplus Jennies and Canucks as a barnstormer and circus stunt pilot after World War I . During prohibition he bought his own plane to ferry bootleg liquor from Mexico to Texas. He was involved in gambling and moonshining operations and eventually served six months in a Dallas jail for his illegal activities. After prohibition, as livelihood from barnstorming waned, he turned to crop dusting in the lower Rio Grande valley. On special charter requests he would sometimes shock his passenger with unforgettable aerial performances. He was a check pilot for Civilian Pilot Training just before World War II . Although his flight career extended to his later years, his flamboyant lifestyle and penchant for the illegal was increasingly limited by rules and regulations of the Civil Aeronautics Administration. Rodgers coauthored an autobiography, Old Soggy No. 1 (1954), in which he preserves the uninhibited character of the first three decades of aviation and reveals his own uniqueness. Bootlegging and flying stunts made him famous among the aviators and law-enforcement officers within the range of Love Field in Dallas as well as later in the lower Rio Grande valley. He performed the aviation heroics attendant upon early flight, including such incidents as surviving a crash after the motor had fallen off, safely landing a fabric-covered aircraft with one side in flames, having the first pilot's license in Texas and being the first to have it revoked, and landing safely at night after being blinded by lighted fireworks mounted on his plane. After his second marriage, Rodgers bought a 400–500 acre ranch in Bandera and opened a steakhouse. He subsequently sold out and moved to McAllen, opened another steakhouse, and ran a fisherman's camp in nearby Zapata. Slats Rodgers died on July 5, 1956, in McAllen and was buried at Laurel Hills Cemetery in Mission.

Tsha Handbook → · 5.9 mi away

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