Charles Dowd, Saratoga's old schooler, definitely knew what time it was.

While Harriet Beecher Stowe was stirring things up with her book "Uncle Tom's Cabin," (released in 1852), her father was building a women's seminary in Saratoga Springs. It seems from the start, (due to conflicting accounts I'll address later) his nephew Luther and a Mr. Emerson Carter, opened and ran it as principals. A decade or so later, Luther Beecher gave up on the school, then, for two years, it was used as Saratoga's first public high school. Then, it was sold to Charles and Harriet Dowd. The Dowd's had owned a women's seminary in Conn. prior to acquiring this spot at the corner of Circular and Spring St., across from Congress Park, in Saratoga Springs.
From the Saratogian 1934....

David Rumsey Historical Map Collection

Charles Dowd sold the school in 1903 to a wealthy coal merchant's daughter, Lucy Skidmore Scribner (funny the student body currently is pushing Skidmore to divest their interest in the coal industry) and later, it became Skidmore College.                                                                                         

Back to Charles Dowd, Charles came up with a remedy for the railway system's time management. Train collisions were weekly events, trains also inherently were never on time, due to a discrepancy of what time it actually was. For instance, railroads had established their own zones. There was Allegheny time (the first), and New York time, which now, the two, are the same time, there was more, such as Chicago time, etc. Charles devised a plan to set up time zones every 15 degrees longitude, each an hour apart, starting with Washington D.C., and essentially got everyone on the same page. Before this, across the globe, time was set to the sun at high noon, acknowledged at the main center of town, and before mechanical watches, people relied on sundials. 

(Sundial dedicated to Charles Dowd, behind the Adirondack Trust above) (below, SPAC sundial) 

There was a lot of redrafting, proofreading, naysaying, red tape etc. The initial proposal was in 1872, and became used by the railroads and the rest of the US and Canada in 1883. His intention was not for the whole world to follow, but it has since been essentially recognized around the globe.

 A 1944 book gifted by his daughter in-law, to Skidmore College, titled Charles Dowd and Standard Time, shows a photo from The Presbyterian Church of Saratoga, of a bronze plaque recognizing one of their own and his historical contribution. Yet the church burned down in 1976 (now the parking lot south of the Algonquin Building), and I wonder if this was salvaged.... 

Daylight savings was not enacted until 1918, 14 years after Dowd's ironic death. Dowd was killed by a locomotive passing through Saratoga Springs, walking near the intersection of North Broadway and Woodlawn (then Matilda ave.)

Sources have never indicated if the train was on time, a 100 year old joke that stands the test of time<--ha! . Set your clocks ahead, loser! And thank father time, a timeless fellow, that  called Saratoga Springs, home.