Nestlé S.A. or Société des Produits Nestlé S.A.

The company known today as General Mills originated in the Minneapolis Milling Company, founded in 1856 by Illinois Congressman Robert Smith, which had leased power rights to mills operating along Saint Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River.

Cadwallader C. Washburn had acquired the company shortly after its founding and had hired his brother, William D. Washburn to assist in the company's development.

In 1866, the Washburns get into the business themselves, building the Washburn "B" Mill at the falls.

At the time, the building is considered to be so large and output so vast that it cannot possibly sustain itself.

Henri Nestlé had developed a milk-based baby food in Vevey, Switzerland, pn September 1866, and soon began marketing it.

The following year saw Daniel Peter begin seven years of work perfecting his invention, the milk chocolate manufacturing process.

Nestlé's had been the crucial cooperation that Peter needed to solve the problem of removing all the water from the milk added to his chocolate and thus preventing the product from developing mildew.

Henri Nestlé retires in 1875 but the company under new ownership retains his name as Société Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé.