Capitol Scientific was originally formed and incorporated in Austin, Texas in November 1963 as Chem Products, Inc. At that time the founding principals were Lee A. Williams and Mack Johnson. The purpose being to manufacture n-Methyl-Piperazine; a product used in the manufacture of the original anti-histamines in the pharmaceutical market. Chem Products had an excellent product but was unable to produce in sufficient quantities to make a profit, and sold the rights to their manufacturing process.

In the meantime, Lee Williams sold chemicals and high-purity reagents in the Central and South Texas markets to make ends meet.

Within a few years of incorporation, J.T. Baker, Inc. recognized Chem Product's potential as an emerging distributor and offered Chem Products a distributorship. J.T. Baker and Chem Products foresaw that the city of Austin in partnership with the University of Texas was an emerging market for research and high-tech industrial development. With the advent of that initial distributorship, Lee Williams began to add other laboratory product lines along with chemicals.