During his lifetime, Joseph Smith was the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. At the time of Smith's assassination in 1844, most Latter Day Saints agreed that his older brother, Hyrum Smith, would have been Smith's successor, had he not also been assassinated. Another likely successor was Smith's younger brother Samuel, who died less than one month later. A few asserted that the last surviving Smith brother, William, should become church president, and William made that claim for a time and gathered a small faction of followers around him.