[3][4] Returning to Ohio, he married Lida Keith and settled into a steady job with a crane manufacturing firm, where he drew covers for the company's catalog.

During his spare time, he created cartoons depicting ranch life and machine shop workers.

The single-panel series introduced a variety of characters, including the cowboy Curly and ranch bookkeeper Wes, and soon led to a Sunday strip, Out Our Way with the Willets.

These had recurring characters, such as Bull of the Woods about the boss of a machine shop and the small town family life in Why Mothers Get Gray.

Don Markstein, in describing Williams' settings and themes, lists the other series subtitles: Frequently-used settings reflected Williams's experiences before he became a cartoonist, and included factory floors, mechanic shops, and cattle ranches — in fact, cowboys and other ranch denizens appeared so frequently, it could almost have edged Little Joe out as comics' first successful western, if other settings hadn't been prominent as well.

[5] With 40 million readers by 1930, Williams was so successful that he bought his own ranch in Prescott, Arizona, where he rode about on his horse Lizard.