James Allen Capps was born on October 13, 1825 in Nashville, Tenn. He was the son of Benjamin Capps and his second wife Nancy M. Scurlock Capps. His father was probably born in North Carolina and farmed land outside of Nashville. After the death of his father, James and his younger brother Joseph lived with his widowed mother in Nashville. At an early age James found work on riverboats, plying the Cumberland and Mississippi and their tributary rivers. His travels brought him to the bustling bayou port of Washington in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, where he met Mary Esther Gardner, the daughter of Thomas Gardner and Mary "Polly" Norton.

James and Mary were married in Washington on June 20, 1852 when he was twenty-six and she was twenty-one. The couple made their home in Washington, where they raised nine children: Mary Ann Page (b. 1853), John Davis (b. 1855), Lucy (b. 1856), Aline Emily (b. 1858), Orramel Hinckley (b. 1860), James Allen, Jr. (b. 1861), Thomas Gardner (b. 1863), Charles (b. ca. 1866), and Mattie (b. 1867).

Capps was one of five riverboat captains who married the daughters of Thomas Gardner. In the 1850s he entered into business with his brother-in-law Orramel Hinckley and other partners in a boat building and shipping business linking Washington to New Orleans and upriver as far north as Indiana. For several years before the outbreak of the Civil War, Capps captained the steamboat "Anna Perret" that plied the river between New Orleans and Washington:

"The Anna Perret, A.J. [sic] Capps Master, will leave Washington every Wednesday at 9 a.m. and leave New Orleans every Saturday at 6 p.m....Passengers and shippers may rely on the punctual time for departure of the steamers." ["Opelousas Courier" (Opelousas, La.), December 17, 1859.]

During the Civil War the "Anna Perret" was outfitted with guns to aid in the supply and the defense of Southern interests along the Mississippi. Capt. Capps joined the Confederate forces engaged along the river. In a letter dated Sept. 15, 1863 from Lt. Col. A. L. Rives, Chief of the Engineer Bureau, C.S.A. War Department, a Capt. James Capps of St. Landry was named in the "list of men who, by the wish of the honorable Secretary of the War, are to be employed in your department on the special service of destroying the enemy's property by torpedoes and similar inventions." The letter fell into Union hands and in a letter of March 21, 1864 U.S. Rear Admiral David O. Porter ordered the listed men arrested as "rebels, engaged as agents for the Confederate Government, employed for the purpose of furthering the views of said Government in destroying Union vessels by torpedoes and other inventions." [Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series 1, Volume 26 (Washington: 1914), 192.] It is not known if Capps was ever apprehended. In any event, he survived the war.

Following the war, life and business on the river quickly returned to normal. Capt. Capps resumed piloting steamboats between Washington and New Orleans.

"Our friend Captain James Capps, has taken command of the fine passenger steamer Louis D'Or, and will leave with that packet for Washington and all intermediate landings on the Atchafayla this evening at 5 o'clock. Captain James Capps has been identified with the trade for many years, he having commanded fine packets in the trade previous to the war, therefore shippers of freight would do well to send their goods on board the Louis D'Or, and they will meet with prompt attention. The Louis D'Or will be found receiving at the foot of Bienville street." ["Times-Democrat" (New Orleans, La.), February 14, 1866.]

Mary Gardner Capps died on February 23, 1869 at age thirty-eight, and her husband survived her by less than two years, dying at the age of forty-five. The nine Capps children were cared for by their Gardner aunts and uncles.
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Died
November 16th A.D. 1870
Mr. James Allen Capps
The Burial will take place this Afternoon (17th) at three oclock at the family grave yard of Mr. O. Hinckley where he will be buried with Masonic Honors.
The friends and acquaintances are respectfully invited to attend without further notice on the part of the family.
[Handwritten funeral notice. Coffey/Roth Family Archive.]

DIED—At Washington, on the 16th inst., Mr. JAMES CAPPS, aged about 52 years.
Mr. Capps was well known to the traveling public, both as a steamboat captain and as a pilot, in which latter capacity he excelled. He will be regretted as such, and as an agreeable and disinterested companion.
["Opelousas Courier" (Opelousas, La.), November 19, 1870, 2.]