Here let us also speak of the death of Sister Vilate Kimball, whose history has been given somewhat at length in previous chapters. After sharing with her husband and the saints the perils and hardships of the exodus, and the journey across the plains, and after many years of usefulness to her family and friends, she died Oct. 22d, 1867. She was mourned by none more sincerely than by her husband, who, according to his words, spoken over her remains, was "not long after her." CHAPTER XLV. MORMON WOMEN OF MARTHA WASHINGTON'S TIME--AUNT RHODA RICHARDS--WIFE OF THE FIRST MORMON BISHOP--HONORABLE WOMEN OF ZION. The heroic conduct of the Mormon women, in their eventful history, is not strange, nor their trained sentiments of religious liberty exaggerated in the action of their lives; for it must not be forgotten that many a sister among the Latter-day Saints had lived in the time of the Revolution, and had shown examples not unworthy of Martha Washington herself. Of course those women of the Revolution are now sleeping with the just, for nearly fifty years, have passed since the rise of the church, but there are still left those who can remember the father of their country, and the mothers who inspired the war of independence. We have such an one to present in the person of Aunt Rhoda Richards, the sister of Willard, the apostle, and first cousin of Brigham Young. Scarcely had the British evacuated New York, and Washington returned to his home at Mount Vernon, when Rhoda Richards was born. She was the sister of Phineas, Levi, and Willard Richards--three of illustrious memory in the Mormon Church--was born August 8th, 1784, at Hopkington, Mass., and now, at the advanced age of ninety-three, thus speaks of her life and works. She says: "During the early years of my life I was much afflicted with sickness, but, through the mercies and blessings of my Heavenly Father, at the advanced age of nearly ninety-three, I live, and am privileged to bear my individual testimony, that for myself I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of the living God; and that the work which he, as an humble instrument in the hands of God, commenced in this, the evening of time, will not be cut short, save as the Lord himself, according to his promise, shall cut short his work in righteousness.