What is the purpose of freemasonry within the temples and masonic symbols on the garments? Is Mormonism a masonic sect? It is my understanding That at the time that Joseph Smith adopted it into the church, there was vast anti-masonry sentiment.

For clarification, Mormonism is not a Masonic sect. Also, there was a great academic paper published by Brigham Young University and Kenneth Godfrey explaining why there are similarities in Freemasonry that come up in Latter-Day Saint Temples and doctrine. I can't do it justice in a short answer, so I'll reference the academic article below: http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Freemasonry_and_the_Temple

No its not a masonic sect if you want to know more about temple garments look at this link. https://www.lds.org/topics/garments?lang=eng