Percy M. Cropper, one of the proprietors of the Casper Daily Press and Casper Record, published at Casper, Wyoming, was born July 29, 1881, in Mazomanie, Dane county, Wisconsin, his parents being William M. and Mary (Walster) Cropper. He acquired a common school education and afterward took up the study of law, to which he devoted his leisure hours for several years while employed on a Chicago newspaper. Much of his life, however, has been devoted to journalistic work. Before he was eighteen years of age he became police reporter at the old Maxwell Street police station in Chicago for the City Press Association and later he was employed on the Chicago Examiner and the Chicago Inter Ocean. He came west in 1904, going first to Utah, where he secured a position on the Salt Lake Herald. He was afterward engaged in the irrigation business in Emery county, Utah, and for a time devoted his attention to the brokerage business in Salt Lake City, but again entered the newspaper field as financial editor of the Deseret News of Salt Lake, retaining that position for a number of years. He became engaged in the oil business in Wyoming, holding large interests in the Casper Embar Petroleum Company, and he is now an officer in the Casper Trust Company and has many business interests in Utah. In November, 1917, he became associated with others in the purchase of the Casper Daily Press and Casper Record, which papers he is now publishing. The papers have been incorporated as the Casper Press-Record Publishing Company, Mr. Cropper being vice president and business manager. He is one of the best known journalists of this section of the country and also a representative business man, identified with various interests which have had to do with the upbuilding and development of the west.
    In Salt Lake, Utah, on the 12^th of September, 1908, Mr. Cropper was united in marriage to Miss Mildred J. Hansen, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. O. C. Hansen, and they have one son, John Samuel, born September 25, 1914.
    Although interested in politics and civic affairs, Mr. Cropper has always preferred to stay in the background and has not cared to occupy public office. However, his aid and influence are given in support of various projects for the general good and his business efforts have largely been of a character that have contributed to general improvement as well as to individual success. He is a firm believer in the west, recognizing its countless opportunities and its undevoloped resources, and he has done much to further its interests in many ways.