Bird (or Byrd) William Patton Harner was born January 1857 in McDowell County, Virginia (later West Virginia), the sixth (?) of 9 (or 11?) children of John Adam Harner and Elizabeth Maxwell.

At about the time he was born, their neighbor (the next listing in the 1860 census) was a man in his early 20's named Bird Lockhart. Is he the inspiration for this Bird's name?

Bird married Nancy (or Nannie) Carr on Wednesday, April 15, 1885 in McDowell County, WV (or April 16, according to his daughter Elizabeth Clara). At the time, he was 28 and she was only 15. They apparently were living in McDowell County when their first two known children, Mary and John, were born (Mary in September 1889 and John in December 1888), but the young family had moved to nearby Bland County, Virginia by the time their next child, Laura, was born in June 1891.

At the time of the 1910 census was taken on April 21, 1910, their oldest child Mary had left home, having married Walter W. Cox.

According to http://genforum.genealogy.com/harner/messages/177.html Sharon Lutheran Church Cemetery in Ceres contains the graves of Byrd W.Harner b.1857 d.1914 and Guy F. Harner b.1901 d.1957.

At least one source has his name as Bird William Patten Harner. The 1860 and 1880 censuses lists him as just "Bird", but the 1870 and 1910 censuses lists him as "Bird Wm P". On the 1885 McDowell County marriage rolls he is listed as "B.W.P. Harner". The 1900 census lists him as Bird W.

Interestingly, the 1910 census lists both Bird and Nannie as being able to read but not able to write. Perhaps that accounts for the various spellings of Bird's name.

Byrd William P. Harman is the same person (with "Harman" a misreading of the census taker's handwriting).

See also this Ancestry.com post by Ruby Harner.