<P> On December 18, 1833, Smith created the office of "Patriarch over the Church" and ordained his father, Joseph, Sr., to fill the role . The "Presiding Patriarch," as the office came to be called, often presided over church meetings and was sometimes sustained at church conferences ahead of all other church officers . </P> <P> On February 17, 1834, Smith created a High Council in Kirtland, Ohio . This body consisted of twelve men, headed by the First Presidency . The Kirtland High Council took on the role of chief judicial and legislative body of the local church and handled such things as excommunication trials and approval of all church spending . </P> <P> Several months later on July 3, 1834, the High Council of Zion was organized in Far West, Jackson County, Missouri . This High Council in Zion is also known as the Presiding High Council, for it was designated to preside over the council established in Kirtland, as well as all future High Councils at the various Stakes of Zion . Cases tried in the standing High Councils of outlying stakes were regularly appealed to the High Council of Zion, it being the penultimate court standing only second to the First Presidency . The Presiding High Council also provided clearance for ordinations in the standing High Councils at the Stakes of Zion . </P> <P> On February 14, 1835, nearly one year after the Kirtland High Council was organized, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, "or special witnesses of the name of Christ in all the world" was formed as a "Traveling Presiding High Council ." This council consisted of twelve men, called and ordained by the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon to the office of apostle, and appointed to oversee the missionary work of the church--meaning that their presiding role was outside of the Stakes of Zion . Thomas B. Marsh was set apart as their president . In practice, while both this group and the High Council in Zion were Presiding High Councils, their jurisdictions were divided with one as "standing" ministers over the Stakes of Zion, and the other "traveling" outside of the Stakes . Initially, the Quorum of the Twelve was subordinate to the High Council of Zion; for example, in 1838, when vacancies arose in the quorum, it was the Standing Presiding High Council at Far West that filled the vacancies . </P>

Who became head of the mormon church after the founder died in 1844