Before the turn of the century, G.H. Nettleton, vice president of the railroad then known as the old KCM&B, was making an inspection tour when his train stopped at Neosho, Missouri, although some said Carthage, and he saw a coon hide tacked to the west end of the depot building to dry. He summoned the agent, said to have been Sam Albrighty, and demanded to know why company property was being used for tanning hides. The agent replied that it was hard to support a family on $1.25 for a ten-hour day of railroading and that he was catching, tanning, and selling coon hides to supplement his salary. Nettleton answered that railroading came first, then grinned and asked how much he wanted for the hide. The agent, startled, said two dollars, and Nettleton bought it. Not long afterward, an ink outline of the tightly stretched coon hide began appearing on Frisco drawing boards in the General Office Drafting Room in St. Louis, turned horizontally instead of vertically. Because the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway was made up of a number of smaller roads, including the old Southwest Branch, the Pacific Railroad, the KCM&B, and others, it was considered logical to combine the letters F R from Francisco, I S from the latter part of St. Louis, and C O for Company to produce FRISCO inside the coon skin outline.