 In his early teens, May moved back to Augusta, Georgia, where he was apprenticed to be a wheelwright with Hubert & Roll.While working at this trade he eventually became a partner in the business, and in 1852 started his own carriage manufacturing business, named R. H. May & Co.; which soon became a leading manufacture of carriages, buggies and farm wagons throughout the south.On February 27, 1845, Robert May married the former Miss Josephine A. Calhoun, daughter of Rev.