Rangiaowhia was, for over 20 years, a thriving village on a ridge between two streams in the Waikato region, about 4 km (2.5 mi) east of Te Awamutu. From 1841 it was the site of a very productive Māori mission station until the Invasion of the Waikato in 1864. The station served Ngāti Hinetu and Ngāti Apakura. Only a church remains from those days, the second oldest Waikato building.

Marmaduke George Nixon was a soldier in the New Zealand Wars. Born at Malta, he joined the British Army in 1831, spending most of his career as an officer in British India with the 39th Regiment of Foot. He left the British Army in 1851 and shortly afterwards emigrated to New Zealand to take up farming in South Auckland. In 1860, during one of the main phases of the New Zealand Wars, he formed and led a cavalry unit in defence of South Auckland. He later participated in the Invasion of the Waikato as commander of Nixon's Horse, another cavalry unit. He was one of the highest ranking casualties of the New Zealand Wars when he died on 27 May 1864 from wounds received in an attack earlier in the year on a village at Rangiaowhia. He was also a Member of Parliament, representing the largely rural electorate of Franklin from 1861 up until his death.