Introduction

Biography

Joseph was the hus­band of Jes­sie Tate of Fred­er­ick­town, Mis­sou­ri (mar­ried 1902).

He was edu­cat­ed at the Jones­bo­ro Train­ing School, Jones­bo­ro, Ar­kan­sas; Mar­vin Col­le­gi­ate In­st­itute, Fre­der­icktown, Mis­sou­ri; and Be­tha­ny-Pe­ni­el Col­lege, Be­tha­ny, Ok­la­ho­ma.

Converted at a Me­tho­dist camp meet­ing at age 12, he start­ed preach­ing at 15, and with­in three years was con­duct­ing re­viv­al meet­ings. He al­so taught school for a while.

Under the min­is­try of evan­gel­ist Will Huff, Speakes was sanc­ti­fied at the Main Springs Camp Meet­ing, near Pres­cott, Ar­kan­sas. On Sep­tem­ber 23, 1900, he was or­dained by Me­tho­dist B­ishop John Gran­ber­ry.

His first 11 years in min­is­try were spent with the South­ern Me­tho­dist church, most­ly on cir­cuits in Ten­nes­see, Ar­kan­sas, and Te­xas. He ev­en­tu­al­ly served in ma­ny pas­tor­ates and po­si­tions through­out Amer­i­ca.

Known as the Man of Per­fect At­ten­dance, he was one of the few men (per­haps the on­ly) who at­tend­ed ev­ery Na­za­rene Ge­ne­ral As­sem­bly from 1907–56. In Na­za­rene circles, he was al­so re­ferred to as the wit­ty Ir­ish­man from Ar­kan­sas.