Kansas native Earl Stevenson grew up like most children; work all day, play when you get the chance.  his father is a ranch foreman on a little spread just out of dodge.  Earl always had a way with critters and got his fair share of licks for training the ranchhands's horses to do dirty tricks on a whistle.  while his skill with the critters was appreciated by all, his sense of humor wasn't.  But a hickory stick is good for breaking bad habits in little boys.  One of the wranglers, Bert exclaimed that earl was a wet-nosed bloodhound after he tracked down a calf that slipped tween the gates one night.  at the time earl wasn't sure if it was a compliment or not, but the name stuck.
In '62 Earl joined what would end up to be nearly 20,000 Jayhawkers as he volunteered for service.  In '63 he was running scouting missions into indian territory but was called back to kansas in '64 where he participated in the battle of Mine Creek.  The victory at Mine Creek effectively ended all southern invasions into Kansas and was happily, the last action Earl saw.