Our Way of Life

Philip O'Bryan Montgomery III, a Dallas native, was a young man in his twenties when he became enchanted with the Fredericksburg area and its people. During weekend and summer visits with his family in the 1970s, he began to document the life stories of Gillespie County residents with his tape recorder and camera. Now, more than three decades later, these remarkable personal histories and photographs are being published for the first time. Our Way of Life presents vivid accounts of Fredericksburg natives and other members of long-established Gillespie County families, most of them descendants of the German immigrants who settled the region. Their voices convey the tenor of daily life in Fredericksburg as well as the unique characteristics of this tightly knit, rural community deep pride in German culture and traditions, fierce individualism, a strong ethos of hard work, and a hearty appreciation for life's pleasures. Illustrated with the author's striking black and white photographs, the book preserves and celebrates a way of life that is gradually disappearing.