Jean Todd Saville

Jean Todd Saville

1846-1934

With courage, confidence, and persistence, nurse Jean Todd Saville (1846-1934), Plankinton, South Dakota, developed her practice, served her community for thirty years, and built a contented life on the Dakota prairie. Todd, who immigrated from Scotland to Dakota Territory in 1888, believed, “Without a doubt, I was the first trained nurse in the Territory.” She may have been correct. The year she earned her diploma in Scotland, trained nurses in the entire United States numbered just six hundred. South Dakota’s first school of nursing did not issue its first nursing diplomas until twelve years after Todd arrived. Read her story in South Dakota History, Fall, 2017.

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