Henri Nestle was born in 1814 in Frankfurt-am-Main, then a free city, was apprenticed as a pharmacist, and practised his profession after fleeing riots in 1833 to settle in Vevey on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. He had an enquiring mind and carried out research in such subjects as gas lighting and fertilisers.

Henri Nestle was born in 1814 in Frankfurt-am-Main, then a free city was apprenticed as a pharmacist, and practiced his profession after fleeing riots in 1833 to settle in Vevey on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. He had an enquiring mind and carried out research in such subjects as gaslighting and fertilizers.

Though it is not known when Nestlé started working on his infant formula project, by 1867, Nestlé had produced a viable powdered milk product. His interest is known to have been spurred by several factors. Although Nestlé and his wife were childless, they were aware of the high death rate among infants. In addition, fresh milk was not always available in large towns, and women in higher society were starting to view breastfeeding as an “unfashionable” option.

Nestlé combined cow’s milk with grain and sugar to produce a substitute for breast milk. Moreover, he and his friend Jean Balthasar Schnetzler, a scientist in human nutrition, removed the acid and the starch in wheat flour because they were difficult for babies to digest.

Initially called “kindermehl,” or “children flour,” his product had an advantage over Liebig’s “soup for infants” in that it was much easier to prepare, needing only to be boiled prior to feeding, and it soon proved to be a viable option for infants who were unable to breastfeed. People quickly recognized the value of the new product, and soon Henri Nestlé’s Milk Flour was being sold in much of Europe. By 1874, just seven years after the launch, 18 countries had their own distribution network and local Nestlé agents.

In just a few years, Henri Nestlé managed to create a global brand together with its own logo. The idea for the bird’s nest trademark came from the Nestle family coat of arms (meaning ‘little nest’ in the Swabian dialect). Creating a somewhat emotional link to his infant formula, Nestlé filled the nest with three open-beaked chicks being fed by their mother.

Nestlé sold his company in 1875 to his business associates and then lived with his family alternately in Montreux and Glion, where they helped people with small loans and publicly contributed towards improving the local infrastructure. In Glion he moved into a house later known as Villa Nestlé.

According to en.wikipedia; erih.net and houseofswitzerland.org