The following year the Pioneer Townsite Company purchased the land, platted the town, and managed the sale of lots for home and businesses. Pilger was incorporated by the county commissioners in June 1887. With the coming of the railroad, boundaries were changed and the schoolhouse moved into town, south of the tracks. Between 1873 and 1894 a dozen rural schools were established near Pilger. The reorganization movement in the 1960s resulted in the majority of these schools merging with neighboring Wisner.
Elementary grades remain in their respective town locations.
Many churches have been active in the Pilger area. Trinity Lutherans organized near the Altona settlement in 1881, another Lutheran church was established eight miles southeast of Pilger in 1885, and Evangelical Lutherans started meeting in homes in 1890. A Baptist Missionary Church was organized in 1901, and a Methodist Episcopal congregation organized in 1891. An LCA Lutheran Church was organized in 1900, and a Danish Evangelical Lutheran group in 1926. These two merged, completing a new church in 1949.