By ROWENA PLETT

Staff writer

Going to a program by singer/guitarist Jeff Davidson is like attending a Kansas history class.

His signature slogan is, “When God made man, he seemed to think it best to make him in the east and let him travel west.”

The Florence native who now lives near Eureka entertained Monday at the annual Marion County Farm Bureau meeting in Marion.

He spoke of cattle trails that crossed Kansas in the 1800s, noting that during the Civil War, Texas beef supported the Confederacy, and Texas saw a build-up of wild, unclaimed cattle. After the war, the east was desperate for beef, which paved the way for cattle drives to Abilene for shipment east.

Davidson spoke and sang of Indian tribes being driven from their homelands and of the many limestone structures that sprang up in Kansas.

Davidson and his late father, Ray, entertained for Flint Hills Overland Wagon Train for 25 years. In 2009, the wagons were being stored at the Davidson Ranch north of Florence, and a German film crew came to film a mini-wagon train for a documentary about the Santa Fe Trail.

“The wagon train didn’t last much longer after that,” Davidson said Monday.

In 2013, Davidson won the Kansas cowboy poetry contest. He continues to entertain groups across the state while working as a Kansas State University watershed specialist.